Well, not quite, but it's quite remarkable that Pope Leo has quoted Gandalf in his first encyclical, which is about artificial intelligence.
I haven't read the encyclical yet, though I've read a few analyses of it. But here's the quotation:The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” Tolkien's mother would be very proud!
Makes up for being excluded from Francis' document in literature. But that one was a short letter , couldn't refer to everyone.
ReplyDeleteWell, could AI create Middle Earth in such completeness? The languages, the characters, the races to an extent, the uniquely invented lettering?
AI could make Disney+ sequels to Star Wars for centuries to come certainly, but at what stage does something become reproduced until it's watery to the point of distaste?
I don't think AI can create anything-- it just mimics what humans have done. Although that makes me wonder if it's a sub-sub-creator in Tolkien's worldview!
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