Super Intelligence, Pinky Promises, and a Papal AI Pronouncement

If you’d prefer to listen instead of read, click on the video above or subscribe to our YouTube channel or podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

1. Last week President Trump met with top executives from across the tech industry, six of whom signed a voluntary AI safety accord. The accord outlined “four layers of controls and audits” with commitments to “robust internal controls” and “independent assessments.” The president also signed an executive order the same day directing the Federal Government to use the term “Super Intelligence” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” in “official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch.”

   • 🎙️ The gathering acknowledges growing concerns over AI safety, but the accord itself is not binding or enforceable. While it is good to hear competitive businessmen express a unified commitment to safety, it’s also easy to spot an emergency public relations assembly in light of AI security breaches, doomsday warnings, and a recent Reuters poll revealing 73% of people “worry that AI companies haven't gone ​far enough to prevent AI from causing serious harm to society.” So we ask: Will a self-regulating corporate pinky promise keep us safe? Is this a real commitment to transparency or an attempt to limit liability exposure? Is the President’s “Super Intelligence” rebrand tone-deaf bearing in mind the public’s discomfort with this technology? AI is impressive and improving, and it has exponential potential for the good of humanity. But we believe “artificial” is a better adjective to remind us all that it’s made by humans. Besides, the noun in the phrase is the consequential center of current debate. “Intelligence” is the illusion of an unprecedented technology that emulates human interaction, personality, feeling, and reasoning, which must be matched with unprecedented transparency.

2. A New York Times article sparked online debate about whether or not AI is or could one day be conscious. The article covered Anthropic’s attempt to include religious leaders in a discourse about AI and the company’s reaction to Pope Leo XIV’s May encyclical. In it, the pope stated, “we must avoid the misconception of equating this type of ‘intelligence’ with that of human beings. These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence.” The author claims the company “lobbied the pope’s advisers to take the prospect of A.I. model consciousness seriously.”

   • 🎙️ Regardless of its motives, Anthropic’s outreach to faith leaders is unique within a deeply secular industry. The pope’s stance is consistent with our own teaching about the tech world’s illusion of reality and intelligence. While online debate centers around what “could be,” we contend for discussion on what “should be.” Our principle lens of Humanity keeps us rooted in the fact that reality is a uniquely embodied human experience in the offline world. Without that anchor, we will get lost in a delusion of our making.

3. Last week OpenAI introduced Dots, agentic AI described as "an extension of you.” This comes after Meta released Muse, an agentic AI like Dots designed to accomplish tasks across devices on a user’s behalf. They are similarly marketed with cute avatars, but target different audiences. Muse has a free tier for consumers, while Dots is initially focused on paid subscribers using ChatGPT Pro.

   • 🎙️ I was telling my boys the other day about Big League Chew and how as kids we used to stuff shreds of gum in our mouths just like professional baseball players did with chewing tobacco. I know Joe Camel is a better comparison, but the cute avatars and Meta’s Muse Charm do make me wonder who exactly is the target audience of these adult products. These are the same two companies being sued for alleged harm to minors. Never forget Peppa Pig. Remember, tech products like Muse and Dots survive with our adoption and thrive with our dependency. The former (like when someone signs up to make a 1980s image of themselves) satisfies investors in the race for market share, but the latter is the corporate goal that leads to actual profit. Whether it’s the disembodied worlds of social media, gaming, or AI, our adoption and use of technology should always point back to the real, embodied world, cultivating human communication and connection. Delayed or refused adoption is one of the few forms of leverage consumers have to influence how technology is implemented. Keep in mind we are guinea pigs. In a recent interview, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, admitted, “we believe the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology.” With Muse making some impressive mistakes in its debut, in this day and age, we would never recommend early adoption of any technology for the average user, even OS updates.

4. We’ve covered social media, gaming, AI, and online safety in Driver’s Training for the Online World, and now we’re developing a bonus module on news media. We’re releasing a series of videos on our podcast and YouTube starting with the history of how attention became more valuable than information.

   • 🎙️ Ironically, we should first be informed on how news media works before being informed by news media. Once we see behind the curtains, we might realize consuming news solely through a social media feed often leads us to confusion and reactivity, instead of clarity and resiliency. Check out the first episode: “Cable TV changed the news. Social media broke it.”

5. Driver’s Training for the Online World is a video-driven training and conversation starter to prepare individuals and families for a lifetime of digital communication. Join us LIVE on YouTube on Thursday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. (CDT) as we guide you through the foundational principle of Humanity. It’s the true north of all things online and essential training with the emergence of artificial intelligence.

   • 🎙️ Save the date, subscribe to our YouTube channel, share the details with friends, or test-drive the module for free on your own.