Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, what happens when AI lies? This is for from a crazy story I read on CNN's website. Let me tell you this. Angela Lips, a, 50 year old grandmother from Tennessee, was recently jailed for five months in North Dakota. Listen to this, a state she has never actually been to. Now, how do you end up in jail in a state you've never been to? Well, it's pretty simple. When the West Fargo, North Dakota police were investigating a fraud case, they contracted with an AI company which used facial recognition software to connect the person kind of seen on camera committing the crime to all the information that's available in social media. And when the AI software said that Angela Lips was the best connection they could find, this grandmother was taken from Tennessee and jailed in North Dakota. Listen to this. For five months. She had evidence proving she was in Tennessee during the crimes, but it didn't matter because AI facial recognition software said she was most likely the one who did the crime. Now, since this has happened, Fargo police have admitted they made, quote, unquote, a few errors, which seems like an understatement, and Lips has been released. but of course, this is a terrifying case and a terrifying thought. Can you imagine police showing up at your home to arrest you for a crime you did not commit in a state you've never been to because AI said you did it? Folks, this is where we're headed. Look, I've been saying on this podcast for months, AI is the future. There's no getting around it. And Christians aren't going to help themselves or anyone else by opposing AI's progress. That is happening. That's a foregone conclusion. But we should be raising the alarm bells when things like this happen. Because if we're not careful, companies, in this case, police departments will become so dependent early on that things like this are going to happen. I couldn't help but think about Ecclesiastes 7:29, which says God created man upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes. Boy, is that not true. We are always looking for another angle, always looking for a way to get ahead. In this case, the police couldn't solve the crime using normal methods, so they decided to let AI do their homework. And as a consequence, a woman spent five months in jail for something she didn't do. Again, in a place she's never even been. We're always looking for something that is going to help us get where we're trying to go faster. Maybe with a little less work, maybe with, a little more time for ourselves. That had to be one, what happened here. And even for the Fargo police to say, hey, we made a few errors, and they have not yet apologized, by the way. Just, said we made a few errors. What they're saying is we thought we could rely on the software. Turns out we couldn't. Little too late for that. At least Ms. Lips wasn't. Hadn't been convicted and sentenced yet. At least she has that going for herself. Listen, as Christians, we have got to continue to, to pay attention and to raise concern about issues of justice, issues of fairness, issues of, equal treatment, despite the fact that our country is becoming more and more technologically based. Again, not anti technology, but certainly anti someone being treated like this. I think this is a way that Christians in their companies, in their organizations, can lead the way, not by refusing to use artificial intelligence, but by using it combined with human intelligence, with an understanding of morality, of fairness, of ethical treatment, stopping to say, wait a minute, I know we can do this, but should we do this? Is this the best way? Is this the right way? Is this actually going to result in people being treated humanely and, fairly? I can only imagine that Ms. Lips will have her day in court, not in criminal court, but in civil court, and that the Fargo Police Department will learn from its mistakes punitively as they pay damages. But for the rest of us, it shouldn't take that for us to be a little more careful in how we use technology. And by the way, if you're a parent, your kids are going to be using AI more than you ever will. Tell them this story. Teach them to be sober minded in their reliance on and their use of technology, so that in the future generation, we can use technology and love our neighbors at the same time. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!