The Catholic theologian Eugen Koller denies that data-based systems can be described as “intelligent”.
AI is a frequently mentioned abbreviation and means artificial intelligence. It will continue to keep us busy in the near future and will affect our lives in a wide variety of areas, including problematic ones. Peter Kirchschläger, professor of theological ethics and head of the Institute for Social Ethics, who teaches at the University of Lucerne, is reluctant to talk about artificial intelligence, knowing full well that machines that provide information and answers based on data cannot be intelligent. At most, the people who invent data computers and filter out information from them in a short time are intelligent. We better talk about data-based systems.
These systems can be used beneficially by people and can be of help to them. But anyone who thinks that artificial intelligence can be achieved with this is mistaken. Only people and possibly animals have the ability to act intelligently, to distinguish between good and bad, to act empathetically and to have an eye for situations in which people lack support and need help.
By Eugen Koller, Lucerne, Catholic. Theologian, retired, hospital chaplain in Schwyz, [email protected]
