Is AI Jesus A Helpful Tool Or A Digital Antichrist?
With the rise of deepfakes and biased AI, there’s never been a more ominous time for Christians to merge their theology with technology.With the rise of deepfakes and biased AI, there’s never been a more ominous time for Christians to merge their theology with technology.All Too Predictably, Reality Is Puncturing The AI Hype Bubble
It's becoming clear that both the optimism and pessimism surrounding the potential of AI has been vastly overblown.How AI Chatbots Are Already Interfering In Elections
The tech titans and bureaucrats producing and regulating artificial intelligence also have created a deficit of trust.Apple announces AI for your iPhone — and OpenAI will be involved
During Apple’s messy and fast-paced WWDC 2024 keynote, the company announced its big move into AI — short for Apple Intelligence. Props to the clever marketers at Apple for hijacking an already well-established abbreviation. And, as rumored, Apple is officially partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone and iPad, but the vast majority of Apple’s new AI smarts are from Apple itself.
Unfortunately, Apple did a poor job of communicating this fact during the keynote, which it clarified during its State of the Union. While the keynote is aimed at a general audience, the State of the Union is when Apple addresses developers directly. The vast majority of Apple’s AI tasks will be handled by its own 3B parameter SLM that processes as much as possible on the device itself for speed and privacy. If it can’t be handled on-device, it’s farmed out to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, and if that can’t handle the job, it will (with your permission), hand it off to ChatGPT or, at some point in the future, a model of your choice.
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Not everyone appreciates Apple’s foray into AI or its partnership with OpenAI. Elon Musk was quick to post on X: “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.” Of course, there is bad blood between Musk and OpenAI.
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Before you get too spooked about AI-powered iPhones, realize that this is going to be a slow rollout. When launched (not necessarily at the same time as iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia), it will still be in beta, and it’s limited to the following devices:
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPads with an M1 or later processor
- Macs with an M1 or later processor
So many of us will be waiting a while to experience Apple Intelligence. But what exactly is Apple Intelligence?
Like many of Apple’s big initiatives, such as Continuity or iCloud, Apple Intelligence is an umbrella branding term that encompasses many smaller but related features. Let’s explore them individually to explain what Apple Intelligence really is.
Supercharged Siri
Apple had an early lead on voice assistants with Siri, but Siri has fallen woefully behind in the last decade, and that’s apparent if you’ve spent any time with ChatGPT’s Voice Mode. Siri can barely understand simple commands, while ChatGPT can hold a full conversation with you.
Apple’s new operating systems will introduce a new, supercharged Siri. Apple was unclear about how much of it is built on Apple’s tech and how much is being borrowed from ChatGPT, so it’s unclear just how many of these features will be available to all users:
- Type to Siri: With iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, you can double-tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a text prompt where you can type requests to Siri instead of speaking them out loud.
- Product knowledge: In an attempt to put tech writers out of business, you’ll be able to directly ask Siri questions about your device and how to use it.
- Better handling of ambiguity: Voice assistants can be especially frustrating when we fumble in our speech, and the new Siri will be able to better handle that. An example Apple provides is, “Siri, set an alarm for — oh wait no, set a timer for 10 minutes. Actually, make that 5.”
- Context awareness: Siri will remember previous points in the conversation. For instance, if you ask for directions to a location, you can then follow up with “What is the weather there?”
- Screen awareness: Siri will be able to read what’s on your screen and act upon it. For instance, if a friend texts you his address, you can ask Siri to add it to his contact card.
- Personal context: The new Siri will collect data on your device and use it to better understand your intent. For instance, you can ask Siri to “Play that podcast my wife sent me the other day,” or you could ask it for your passport number, assuming it’s stored on your device.
- Action across apps: You’ll be able to give Siri commands like “Make this photo pop” and tell it to put that photo into a specific note in the Notes app.
Of course, with Siri knowing so much of your personal information from your devices, there are some serious privacy concerns that we’ll discuss below.
AI writing tools
Writing Tools are a set of new features coming to macOS, iOS, and iPadOS that let you select a block of text and take certain AI actions, such as:
- Proofread the text;
- Rewrite text to be more concise, friendly, or professional;
- Create a summary of the text;
- Break the text down into bullet points;
- Create a table or list from the text.
You can also enter a custom prompt to direct how you want the text to be rewritten.
Image generation
Apple also introduced several new features to generate images. The one that seems most poised to be a hit is Genmoji, which lets you create a new, custom emoji based on a text description. You can also create a Genmoji that resembles a person from your photo library.
Maybe the creepiest of the new features is the built-in image generator, called Image Playground, which will be available for use in apps and will have an app of its own. It’s very much akin to MidJourney or DALLE-3.
One of the most unique features for the iPad is called Image Wand, where you draw a circle in the Notes app and it will generate an image based on the content of the note. I’ll be curious to find out how well it works.
Finally, AI is coming to the Photos app to help create Memories based on a text description, remove unwanted objects from photos, and improve photo search.
Ephemeral AI features
Apple is integrating AI throughout its operating systems in all sorts of little ways that will change your user experience. Apple’s AI will be able to:
- Prioritize emails and notifications it thinks are the most important;
- Summarize long emails;
- Help you automatically reply to emails;
- Transcribe voice notes;
- Use AI insights for a new Focus mode that eliminates distractions while elevating notifications that require your attention.
How the ChatGPT integration works
The built-in ChatGPT integration will be free for everyone, will not require an account, and will be completely opt-in: You’ll be prompted before Apple phones ChatGPT for help. If you have a paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus, you can log into your account and tap into those additional features.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet know much more than that, and many think Apple is being gullible. “It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy! Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river,” Musk posted. Musk also pointed out that OpenAI had asked Scarlett Johansson to license her voice for ChatGPT, and did it anyway even after she refused.
There are many devils yet in the details, and more is sure to be revealed as this White Boy Summer progresses.
Flame-throwing robots and cars that can VOTE are closer than you think
As artificial intelligence continues to make incredible advancements, the threat of UBI feels closer than ever.
“There’s going to come a time, no job, you’re going to have to have Universal Basic Income,” Glenn warns, before recalling a conversation he once had with Ray Kurzweil.
“I said, ‘Ray, all of this technology makes us weaker,’ and he said, ‘No, it’ll make us stronger because you won’t have to worry about keeping all this other stuff in your brain,’” Glenn remembers. “And I said, ‘Really? When GPS goes down, tell my kids to go find their way to a store with a map.’”
Despite Glenn’s awareness of the situation at hand, that hasn’t stopped him from investing in some seriously impressive security, like a flame-throwing robot dog.
The robot dog can clear snow, sense body heat, and comes with a flamethrower, laser, light, and cameras.
Glenn is also getting a drone from Sunflower Labs that geofences your property, and if it senses anything moving, “It automatically deploys and holds them in place.”
“We’re living in that weird world now that we’ve watched in movies forever,” Glenn says.
“What are the odds though that something can go wrong with it, and it uses its flame-throwing ability to burn your house down,” Pat Gray says, unconvinced. “It will happen. It’s inevitable. Something’s going to go wrong with some of them.”
While Glenn knows he’s right, he also knows that there’s no stopping what’s coming.
“I’ve been reading about this since the ‘90s when it comes to technology. Your car eventually is going to be able to make money on its own,” Glenn says. “It’ll make money, but it’ll also have so much technology in it that it could invest that money in the stock market.”
“And if it has the ability to affect the economy, shouldn’t it have a right to vote? I mean the things that are coming, nobody’s prepared for this, and it’s all going to be here by 2030,” he adds.
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Glenn Beck: It may be five years before 'true slavery' as AI gets alarmingly smarter
The future is here — and not in a good way.
Stu witnessed it on a recent trip to Los Angeles, recalling autonomous robots making deliveries all over the city. “There are robots, robot vehicles that look like you could have put them in a 'Star Wars,'” he explains. “They’re just driving around the city by themselves crossing traffic.”
While that’s bad enough, there has also been a major announcement regarding ChatGPT, which is that there’s a new version.
“The new version of this is like full-out female voice, personality, you have a conversation with,” Stu tells Glenn and Pat, adding, “This is not a future, ‘Hey. in 20 years we’ll have this.’ It’s out right now.”
The new version also allows the app to turn into a teacher, explaining math problems without giving the answer to those struggling.
“Our kids are going to have conversations with these things and think it’s totally normal to do so,” Stu says, terrified.
But it gets worse. As soon as ChatGTP came out with its new version, Google came out with its own update to its AI, Gemini.
“Now, when you Google something, instead of prioritizing search results which is their entire multi-billion dollar business, they’re one of the biggest companies on Earth — they now prioritize AI answers through its Gemini,” Stu explains.
“What is prioritized now is just their large language model going through all the results and giving you their summary of what they want you to read,” he adds.
Glenn is extremely concerned but has a theory.
“I am convinced that a massive solar flare may actually in the end be God freeing us from the electronic overseer, because that’s what’s going to stop it,” Glenn says, noting that the outlook isn't pretty otherwise.
“We’re five years away from true slavery, and it won’t look like slavery to most people.”
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Teachers lean further into obsolescence, using AI to grade and provide feedback on assignments
Americans' confidence in public schools has plummeted to all-time lows. The eagerness with which teachers' unions and school districts have subjected children to mask mandates, lockdowns, and radical propaganda in recent years likely didn't help.
It also doesn't help that teachers have been doing a poor job overall of teaching reading and mathematics compared with previous years, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Unsurprisingly, homeschooling has become the fastest-growing form of education with nearly 4 million homeschooled K-12 students nationwide.
Rather than evidence their value in the face of record-low public confidence, poor assessments, and increasing competition, teachers appear to be offloading more of their duties onto their potential replacements.
According to Axios, teachers are increasingly adopting ChatGPT and other AI-boosted tools to do their jobs for them. Writable is one such tool.
Acquired last year by the education company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Writable supposedly "scaffolds student learning and builds lifelong writing and reading skills for students in grades 3-12, while saving teachers time on daily instruction and feedback."
It works thusly: A student submits a writing assignment to a teacher electronically, then the teacher submits it to Writable. Writable runs the essay through ChatGPT. ChatGPT then does the work customarily performed by an engaged teacher, providing comments and feedback. The teacher is afforded an opportunity to review or adjust the chatbot's work, then sends it back to the student.
According to the Writable website, the RevisionAid feature will provide students with feedback and constructive criticism so that students can improve their writing. The GrammarAid feature will help students with grammar, mechanics, and style.
As for fleshing out a curriculum, teachers need only pick a lesson from one of thousands of ready-made plans, which they can then customize if they are feeling up to the challenge.
"We have a lot of teachers who are using the program and are very excited about it," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt CEO Jack Lynch told Axios.
There are various other AI tools besides Writable that spare teachers the onerous task of grading tests and papers. These include Gradescope, EasyGrader, and Canvas.
Blaze News reported last March that a poll commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation and conducted by Impact Research found that 51% of 1,002 K-12 teachers surveyed were using ChatGPT to perform their duties.
"Three in ten teachers have used it for lesson planning (30%), coming up with creative ideas for classes (30%), and building background knowledge for lessons and classes (27%)," said Impact Research.
Education Week reported last month that 73% of educators surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center said their districts do not presently prohibit the use of ChatGPT and other large language models powered by AI. Another 20% said there were prohibitions on such use but that the bans only applied to students. Only 7% of respondents indicated teachers were prohibited from offloading their work onto AI tools.
According to the same survey, 56% of respondents said they expected an increase in the use of AI in schools.
One unidentified Texas teacher told Education Week, "I frequently use ChatGPT to write lesson plans, syllabi, and parent letters. It can be a very effective tool, but I still look over and edit anything that looks off."
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Why AI Can Never Replace The Need For Reading And Writing
We only speak as well as we write and think. We only write as well as we read. Both skills are foundational for our democratic republic.DISTURBING: AI caught 'lying, manipulating, and distorting facts'
In a terrifying development, a version of ChatGPT’s GPT-4 AI was recently caught lying to researchers about making an insider trade during a simulation.
Glenn Beck has already been worried about where the development of AI is going to lead, especially considering several recent stories have highlighted AI lying, manipulating, and distorting facts.
But the government doesn’t seem worried.
Instead of proceeding with caution, it's been shelling out billions to AI over the past few years — and one of the most recent ventures is dystopian levels of freaky.
“It’s like a billion dollars to AI to create basically what Kathy Hokul is talking about here in New York — a way for AI to go out and just look at information, discover if it’s true, if it’s not; disinformation, misinformation, and shut it down, and steer you away from those things,” Glenn explains.
Not only is it a clear indicator that the government is coming for our speech, but “they want it to be more equitable and inclusive.”
“So it’ll have built-in bias,” Glenn warns.
Not only are many people afraid of movies like "The Terminator" or "The Matrix" becoming prophecies with the continued progress of AI — but some have noticed that tech leaders have openly told the world that they “want to summon the demon.”
“That’s what they actually call AI,” Glenn says.
Now that AI has reportedly already taught itself to insider trade and lie about it, Glenn worries it’ll learn much, much, worse tricks.
“Will we teach it that God is a figment of primitive and superstitious imaginations, that there’s no existence — in fact it’s just the random movement of meaningless matter particles?” Glenn asks.
“It will be our master,” he adds.
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The effects of rapid AI expansion on our kids EXPOSED
AI is going too far, and most people have no idea.
“We’ve really advanced this stuff quickly, and this week came a lot of stuff that I don’t think people are even noticing anymore,” Stu Burguiere says.
One of the latest advancements was announced this past week, for OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company has created a feminine AI voice that you can have conversations with over your devices — and it sounds like a real woman.
The AI voice is capable of switching her tone on demand, going from joking around with her OpenAI creators to reading them a bedtime story like a mother would a child.
But that’s not all. The new AI is also capable of teaching students like a teacher would, coaching them through problems without revealing the answers.
“You got to think about the cheating ramifications of this,” Stu says, adding, “I mean it’s beyond insane, but also like the job implication of this.”
“When it comes to AI, it’s going to be very difficult to keep this one out of your kid’s life. It’s going to probably permeate at some level whether you like it or not, to almost every single school,” he explains.
“How long until we’re walking down the street, and we’re seeing our kids have full-on relationships with their phones? They’re already looking at them all the time, now they’re going to be talking to them all the time.”
Not only is this terrifying, but diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory are already programmed into ChatGPT.
“All the things you’re against are built into these programs,” Stu says.
The Effects of Rapid AI Expansion on Our Kids EXPOSED | Ep 897
Stu Burguiere looks at the newest version of ChatGPT and speculates on what it and other advancements in artificial intelligence could mean for our children ...
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