ChatGPT and the Heralds of AI’s Subjugation of Humanity - with Joe Allen

In just a short time, programs like ChatGPT and other chat bots have burst on the societal scene to the delight, fascination and enthrallment of millions. Individuals can now interact with a language program that is seemingly conversant on numerous subjects and provides “answers” via virtual brains. But this new powerful technology begs many more questions: What are these programs really, and how do they fit in with the development of AI? Where does anthropomorphic projection fit in as people become increasingly involved with them? Are these bots a first major step towards a transhuman reality? And can these technologies actually be forming the basis or entryway to a new type of technoreligion?

This week on Mindmatters we get to discuss these issues with Joe Allen, author of the Substack blog Singularity Weekly. After extensive research into this and related subject matter, Joe’s nuanced analysis tells us that yes, we need to be paying serious attention to where all this has brought us, and where things are very likely going.  Given how powerful and even seductive the use of these technologies are, he also suggests what may be the healthiest attitude or approach to interacting with them going forward. As if the world hasn’t devolved into enough insanity there is, in fact, a new pathologizing influence to contend with. And we, ‘legacy humans’, ignore its profound influences at our own peril.