November Event: Derek Shuurman

Personhood and the Perception of Truth in the Age of AI

WHEN: Thursday, November 21, 2024
WHERE: KOSC Chair's Room
TIME: Reception at 4 p.m., Lecture at 4:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public; chapel credit available

About the lecture

Recent developments in Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) enable the creation of chatbots that can mimic human-like conversations. This talk will demonstrate a chatbot that takes on the persona of C.S. Lewis followed by a reflection on whether this, in fact, is a good thing. Using chatbots to mimic persons is novel and entertaining, but could there be potential pitfalls for the notion of personhood? Furthermore, LLMs can “hallucinate,” generate misinformation, and promote disinformation thereby undermining truth. Despite these pitfalls, this talk will refer to the Biblical story to sketch a responsible way forward for AI and chatbots.

About our speaker

Derek C. Schuurman worked as an electrical engineer for several years and later completed a Ph.D. at McMaster University in the area of robotics and computer vision using machine learning. He is currently professor of computer science at Calvin University, a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, and an advisor for AI&Faith. He has written about faith and technology issues in a variety of publications including monthly columns in Christian Courier and regular contributions to the Christian Scholar's Review blog. He is the author of the book Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology and co-author of A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers, both published by InterVarsity Academic Press.

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