Hallow app CEO and co-creator Alex Jones says that while artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for both evil and good, there is one central question people must ask when it comes to emerging technologies.
Jones said that a lot of friends and "fellow startup folks" who are working in AI are building "really mind-blowing tools that can do a lot of different things."
AI is considered by many as one of the "scarier technologies," which can be used for "tremendous, tremendous evil," said Jones, naming the the internet's "massive proliferation of pornography" as just one example.
Technology can also be used for good, he continued, including advances in medical care and of connecting long-lost loved ones by acting as a vehicle "to allow God to reach into people's lives."
With his popular Catholic faith app Hallow — whose offices are headquartered in Chicago — Jones has seen firsthand the "great good" that technology can do to help people; for example, people in a mental health crisis and those considering suicide "are able to find some sense of hope" through the app, he said.
"People who have lost children are able to find some sense of light in their life," he also said, referencing a sense of peace the app can bring to people. And those "who are struggling with addiction are able to get to sobriety and hold it" with the help of Hallow, he continued.
For his team, as a development tool, AI "still makes a lot of errors — factual errors," he said.
"You can't really have ChatGPT write a blog," he pointed out. But he said there's something helpful about using it "to get from a blank piece of paper to something."
"We use it for ideas," he continued. "We’ll ask my team to come up with five ideas and ChatGPT to come up with five, and then we'll take one."
"We write it end to end," he said of the actual produced content, "but sometimes you can have ChatGPT take a first stab."
He continued, "You just need to edit it. You need to factcheck it super heavily."
However, he said "there is something powerful about going from a 0 to 1" in the idea process by using ChatGPT.
While Hallow hasn’t woven ChatGPT into their coding workflow yet — there are still a lot of kinks to work out, said Jones — he said he has several friends "who have seen something like a 300% increase in developer capacity [using AI], because you can code these decently advanced things."
The work product still has to be reviewed by humans, he said, calling the technology currently "not anywhere close to top-tier work."
Currently, some of the most interesting capabilities of AI include "some of the art stuff that it can do," he said.
"Now, still, you've got images [made by AI] where somebody has six fingers, or, you ask it to make a church and there are three crosses on top of the church," he noted, laughing.
With art, as with written content, the Hallow team uses AI to "help come up with different ideas, usually not to come up with the actual end product."
For Hallow, "probably the biggest opportunity with AI is in helping workers and those on the team to become a lot more efficient."
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The possibilities in the future of AI are endless, said Jones, noting that with coming technologies, "each person could create their own movie, or their own game."
He added, "Ultimately, and I think we are really far away from this now, the ultimate fear with AI is that as soon as it can improve itself significantly, you then have something that is considerably more intelligent than human beings."
Some are afraid that AI will take over the world and "become God," he said.
"The fun part for me is, you know, people, especially in Silicon Valley, say, ‘What if AI becomes God?’"
He continued, "And the fun part for me is that it's just such a silly question – because God is God, right?"
He added, "I think that's maybe an interesting question for people who don't have a god. I already talk to my God every day."
Jones referenced Pope John Paul’s letter written on the 24th World Communications Day back in May 1990 as a possible blueprint for today's AI development.
"It’s this beautiful letter on the Vatican website that says far from suggesting that the Church should stand aloof or try to isolate herself in the mainstream of these [tecnnological] events, the council fathers saw the Church as being in the very midst of human progress, sharing the experiences of the rest of humanity, seeking to understand them and interpret them in the light of faith," said Jones, quoting from the letter.
He added, "It is for 'God's faithful people to make creative use of new discoveries and technologies for the benefit of humanity and the fulfillment of God's plan for the world,'" he continued, again quoting the letter.
"Then the letter closes with, 'Whether we are young or old, let us rise to the challenge of new discoveries and technologies by bringing to them a moral vision rooted in our religious faith, in our respect for the human person, and our commitment to transform the world in accordance with God's plan,'" said Jones.
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"So," Jones also said, "the core question is: What are the fundamental principles that you would give an AI to make sure that it stays safe?"
He added, "And, to make sure that it serves humanity in the greater good?"
Said Jones, "That is a question that scripture has already answered, and Christianity has already given us."
