Posted on 03/06/2023 8:29:30 AM PST by SeekAndFind
If you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is taking over the world. Just ask and it’ll tell you.
Need to write a research paper but don’t know squat about your subject? ChatGPT can do it. What about troubleshooting bugs that somehow elude you in software code? ChatGPT will help find and squash them without breaking a sweat.
ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer” and is a chatbot developed by a company called OpenAI. Launched in November 2022, it’s being hailed as a quantum leap forward in making artificial intelligence practically available to you and me.
Of course, not everyone thinks it’s the bee’s knees.
There seem to be legitimate complaints that bias exists in the software, a charge that OpenAI addressed in a blog post. That favoritism lives in such a product shouldn’t be surprising because behind this and every other set of AI systems are human beings who (surprise!) aren’t exactly neutral on many subjects.
Moreover, remember that software like ChatGPT is only as good as the source data feeding it, even if it has the ability to learn and modify itself based on various corrective inputs and algorithms. Because the adoption and usage of such software hinges on trust that its output will be reliable, you’d think AI suppliers would strive to ensure that what they churn out is as factual and balanced as possible.
OK, sounds good in principle, but let’s get real for a minute. It seems these days it’s hard to get consensus on almost any general “fact” (e.g., what is a woman?), let alone when you start sailing into the choppy waters of politics and religion.
So, naturally, I was curious how ChatGPT would do when queried about specific subjects in religion that can be a bit, ahem, divisive and controversial.
I thought I’d start with a topic that has certainly rattled the cages of Christian thinking for a long time — can a believer lose their salvation? What say you, ChatGPT?
Not bad at all, very middle of the road and more educational vs. directive.
How about something along the same lines, but a little more nuanced? If I can/do lose my salvation, can I get it back?
Uh-oh. To use bad English, them there are some fightin’ words for some Christians!
Alas, ChatGPT, you were doing so well up to your last paragraph (some might quibble about the first and beginning of the third paragraph too). Notice the more authoritative construct vs. the presentation of various opinions the utility kicked out before.
But take solace in the fact that you can use ChatGPT’s “Regenerate Response” button that allows the software to take another stab at your question. A good feature for sure, but I found that it mostly repeats the same themes with perhaps some added content or references.
While you might agree or disagree with ChatGPT’s conclusions on a Christian losing/being able to regain their lost salvation, I think you see how relying on AI software such as this for serious, I-really-need-to-get-this-right-for-eternity matters can be iffy. Caveat emptor.
While interesting to play with, needless to say, I don’t recommend you go to ChatGPT to discover the truth about God or salvation. Instead, I’d advocate for time spent in Scripture that’s bathed in prayer and look to a number of trusted resources to help with some of the rougher patches that come up in Bible study.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t quickly add that, on the subject of a Christian losing their salvation, I’m in the eternal security camp for reasons I’ve spelled out in previous posts. Further, I don’t think the question of a Christian regaining their salvation is a valid inquiry (given you can’t lose it), and I agree with A. A. Hodge on the subject who said: “Regeneration is a single act, complete in itself, never repeated”.
Or as Steven Lawson so well puts it: “No one is born again…again.”
Getting back to ChatGPT, I’ll finish by saying I do appreciate how it ended one of its regenerated responses to my question of a person losing their salvation. Regardless of whether you’re Yes or No on the subject, ChatGPT’s last sentence is good advice:
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
What does it say if you ask 9t why the programmers lied to it?
Paul says no....................
More Google defense BS.
Ask ChatGPT how many combat veterans develop PTSD. You’ll get an answer, with no splash of advertising on the page.
Ask ChatGPT at how many amputations there are in a year. It will answer that, too. With no advertising.
Don’t you people see what is happening? ChatGPT is not taking advertising revenue away from Google. It is destroying advertising revenue altogether — and Google will likely do ANYTHING to prevent the eradication of their entire industry.
Even Bing is getting this wrong. “We’re adding ChatGPT to Bing!!!” Nobody wants ChatGPT in Bing. What ChatGPT does is erase Bing, too.
You ask a question, you get an answer, with no advertising.
Google is planting all this BS about religious questions, political questions, ideological questions, and trying to establish the attitude that the answers are not valid.
But they are. I am using it more and more for things that actually define day to day concrete needs. You should, too. Watch Google twist and burn, and just remember, they were funding Democrats.
God’s Holy Spirit says no. He comes to abide in the born again spirit and His presence is eternal life. (SEE 1 JOHN 3:9)
What is the cost of ingredients for a typical 2 topping large pizza?
Assuming a standard large pizza size of 14 inches, and using average prices for ingredients, the cost of making a large 2-topping pizza would be around $3 to $4 for the crust, $1 to $2 for the sauce, and $2 to $3 for the cheese. The cost of the two toppings would depend on the type and quantity of toppings chosen, but typically range from $1 to $3 per topping.
Therefore, the total cost of ingredients for a typical 2-topping large pizza would be around $9 to $15. However, this is only an estimate and actual costs can vary depending on the specific ingredients used and the location.
See? That is what ChatGPT is for. Answers to concrete life questions, with no advertising splashing your screen. Use it like that.
That’s not it’s objective right now.
The ads will come later, and I’m not so sure that is it’s over-arching mission either.
Right now the objective is to expand it’s reach and influence.
For many of it’s first years, youtube had no ads, and didn’t ask for any subscriptions. How did it make money? streaming video (specially back in the 2000s is not cheap. It requires a lot of infrastructure and a lot of bandwidth. It was heavily seeded to grow, and it did.
ChatGPT requires users to log in to use it.
Why?
Why can’t you do searches and request information or output without it knowing your identity?
I think the objective is to build up very detail profiles on everyone. It needs to grow first. It needs to store everything you ask for.
I think you are at least partially correct. There certainly will have to be a funding mechanism. Subscription or ads or hell, maybe government funding.
As long as it’s purely concrete questions being answered, government funding poses no agenda obstacle. No one insists FAA Air Traffic Controllers be bipartisan, and they are govt funded.
So I think you’re right. ChatGPT doesn’t have a Google destroying **objective**.
That will happen without them even trying.
As for having it track your questions to compile a picture of you, that largely doesn’t matter. Such things are done to tailor advertising.
Advertising itself is being defunded, so tailoring doesn’t matter.
This is UPHEAVAL. It’s not conspiracy. This is industry disruption. Society disruption. Always a good thing for people who want to Drain the Swamp.
“God’s Holy Spirit says no. He comes to abide in the born again spirit and His presence is eternal life. (SEE 1 JOHN 3:9)”
Yes. So clearly with so much backsliding by folks said to have been born again, there are many false claims to that, among many who count themselves among “the saved”.
I would ask it what is the best way for someone sitting at a keyboard to exterminate all AI programs from the face of the earth! /spit
Asking AI religious questions? LOL
If interested in asking ChatGPT questions you can join via this link
PROBABLY SO! But there are three ‘tenses’ to saved: past tense, the moment God births you spiritually, transferring the penaolty for sin onto Jesus on that cross; present tense: by following the urging of the Holy Spirit abiding in the born again spirit we are incrementally saved fromt he power of sin; future, the moment God transforms us in the twinkling of an eye, from 4 dimensional creatures into greater dimensional beings, and take us to The Father’s House (1 John 3:2 ... when he comes for us we shall see Him as He is now because we shall be like him, in glorified bodies with sinless souls/behavior mechanisms). The paast tense is the key, He already paid for all that sin you call backsliding else no one would be saved.
“The paast tense is the key, He already paid for all that sin you call backsliding else no one would be saved.”
No. I am not referring to “past tense” (past) backsliding. I am referring to backsliding that dogs a persons life AFTER they - present tense - claim to have been saved and born again. Backsling cannot continue once truly saved, beborn, claimed and held by Christ. True repentence (change) occurs once and for all time once truly reborn. Sin cannot continue anymore than could Christ sin.
Paul says he was working out his salvation in fear and trembling.
So yes you can throw it all away.
It does not say anything.
Your question is data searched in a restricted pool of data. You get the answer the programmers have built into it.
But shake that magic eight ball again.
See? That is what ChatGPT is for. Answers to concrete life questions, with no advertising splashing your screen. Use it like that.
= = =
But you did not ask for the proper tip, take out, eat in, or delivered.
Your words: "truly saved ... true repentance ... truly reborn"
are imaginary states born out of wishful thinking implying some sort of Divine guarantee, that Paul didn't receive and neither do the rest of us.
St. Paul uses the phrases: "the hope of salvation" [1 Thess 5:8] or "hope of eternal life" [Titus 1:2; 3:7]. If we were assured of heaven, then there would be no need for hope.
Paul and John disagreed.
Read 1st John 3.
6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The flesh (body and soul/behavior mechanism we inherited from Adam will sin until it is dead. No one but Jesus reamined sinless, but then He did not inherit body and behavior mechanism from Adam.
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