US Tech Giant Unveiling Eerily Life-Like Robots; Churches Critical About AI
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – U.S. tech giant Nvidia has unveiled an eerily life-like robot that, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), will assist people, including with “work that humans do not want to do” despite ethical concerns.
Commentators have watched with amazement as the humanoid robots provided overly realistic responses and movements.
Nvidia’s genderless AI creatures also seemed able to distinguish between different environments and explain their decisions.
Critics called their actions falling into the “uncanny valley,” where distinguishing between authentic and synthetic becomes almost impossible.
Concerns have also risen about the use of robots as inhumane war machines. But Nvidia’s versions appeared friendly, even more or less smiling, for now, as they carried heavy equipment or carried out farming.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang enthusiastically showcased the robots, including small knee-high Star Wars film resembling Disney robots, at the firm’s technology conference last week.
He explained that the company’s new GR00T, or ‘Generalist Robot 00 Technology’ system, is built to handle the operation of robots.
SOFTWARE AND CHIPS
It is also part of efforts by Nvidia, which provides software and chip products for the mobile computing and automotive industry, to remain dominant in AI, which is expected to grow into a multi-trillion market by 2032.
The company claims its revenue rose 206 percent over the prior year in its last quarter of 2023 due to the surge in AI interest and demands.
“We have now the necessary technology to imagine generalized humanoid robotics. In a way, it is much more easier [than other technologies]. We have a lot more imitation training that we can provide the robots because we [humans] are structured in a very similar way,” Huang stressed.
Questions remained about how far the interaction between humans and robots will go.
If it’s up to Nvidia, that could be in every aspect of life, including in complicated surgeries and other tasks improving or extending people’s lives.
And with the world getting ‘colder’ in human relations despite climate activists warning of a ‘warmer’ planet, robots could also be used as companions for people seeking care.
OpenAI, the U.S.-based artificial intelligence research group, has already developed the ‘Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer’ or ChatGPT, enabling users to steer talks with a robot towards a desired style and language.
BROADER ROLE
It is part of OpenAI’s plan to roll out “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.”
Yet, concerns have been raised about these developments within churches.
Already in 2019, the U.S.-based Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) investigated AI when Russell Moore was still president there.
Moore noted that “It’s also critical that the church insist AI be used in ways consistent with the truth that all people possess dignity and worth, created as they are in the image of God.”
The robots seemed a far cry from that image.
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