It is a question facing every student in the current age: Why should I bother with this boring study if I can just get ChatGPT to do it for me? This temptation is undoubtedly very strong, and perhaps it even appears to be harmless. How should Catholics nowadays think about this issue?
The first thing to recognise is that ChatGPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence are… well, not intelligent. True intelligence belongs to human beings, as rational animals made in the image of God. There are arguably two main reasons why many people are led to believe that AI is intelligent just as we are.
Philosophy
First, it has become a common belief that the human intellect is a computer: the brain is the hardware, and the mind is the software on which it runs. However, this cannot be, since the human intellect is something immaterial. We know this because it is capable of grasping and understanding concepts, such as what it is to be a man, or what it is to be mortal.
Further, the intellect is able to combine these concepts into a proposition, such as, ‘all men are mortal’. Further again, it is able to take two propositions and reason to a conclusion through argumentation.
That indicates the second reason many people are convinced about AI’s supposed intelligence: because it could come up with an article about itself”
Other animals, such as cats and dogs and giraffes, have a certain intelligence only in a very limited way, but there is a difference of kind here, and not just degree. In short, a giraffe will never be sitting down to grasp what the essence of AI is and then write an article about it.
And that indicates the second reason many people are convinced about AI’s supposed intelligence: because it could come up with an article about itself, at least apparently so. However, as the philosopher Ed Feser points out in his book Immortal Souls, being convinced of genuine intelligence because of the great results something can achieve is like saying that what great magicians can do to simulate magic means that magic must be real.
Humanity
AI simulates intelligence (ask it, it will confirm this): it is confined to algorithms and pre-programmed modes of operation (at least in its current form). Even though it is an immensely powerful and incredibly fast tool, it remains just that: a tool.
To be a computer is, by definition, to be programmed by (and therefore to depend upon) a human intellect, no matter how simple or complex the coding. And that is important to remember, since the human intellect’s immateriality is also the source of its freedom. If your mind were made of material ‘stuff’, then all of your decisions would be no more than the result of chemical interactions, which always end the same way. As such, your decisions would be predetermined.
When human beings study and learn, they bring their whole previous experience (from body and soul): memories, sense reactions, emotions, etc”
Having said that, we must always be careful to remember that the human person is not a ghostly mind floating around trapped in a body. Men and women are embodied souls, with body and soul two sides of the same coin, both being essential to make up that human person. And, as such, our capacity to learn is enmeshed in more than just a constant flow of informative data.
When human beings study and learn, they bring their whole previous experience (from body and soul): memories, sense reactions, emotions, etc. This is why moments of inspiration – and even genius – have tended to come when human beings are immersed in natural settings. There is something about natural beauty – mountains, lakes, forests, etc. – which reflects the goodness of God beyond what AI could manage.
Exposure
In short, human beings learn through exposure to reality. The mind is malleable and will shape itself to what is before it. It is not that AI is not real – it very much is – but rather that overuse of it can cause us to miss the reality around us, which is there to be interrogated by a mind which is actively engaged, as opposed to passively taking in endless information.
ChatGPT is a very fast and powerful tool, but it cannot be overtaken with wonder at a stunning vista, nor can it really learn because it is not true intelligence. Only human beings with their immaterial minds can do this.
Fr Chris Gault OP was born in Belfast, where he studied medicine at Queen’s University. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2017 and was ordained as a priest in July 2024. He is currently assigned to St Mary’s Priory in Cork.
