What does the Church teach about artificial intelligence?

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bigred84

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Hello,
With the recent appearance of a supercomputer(dubbed Watson) as a contestant on the game show Jeopardy, I have been wondering about artifical intelligence. Some people see as this latest development in making computers one step closer to thinking like humans, though other think that this is so much hype. I wonder about the Church’s teaching on all this. What, if anything, does the Church teach about artificial intelligence? What are we as Christians supposed to think of these advances in computer technology? Right now, computers are nothing more than sophisticated calculators-tools to be used. Would it be possible to make a computer that actually thinks and makes moral decisions like human beings? If so, would not such a creature have an immortal soul if it is capable of rational thought? Would God ensoul this being at some point in time, similar to how an unborn child recieves an immortal soul? Or is this all so much science fiction? .
 
Hi,

Only God can create an immortal soul. The soul is the principle of life. So no matter how sophisticated a computer may be, it will remain a piece of machinery. Humans do not have the ability to breath life into a computer–and never will! God has never indicated that he would breath life into a piece of machinery.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
 
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