Found this monstrosity via Jack Clark’s Import AI newsletter, a post from Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, decrying OpenAI’s “woke” POV, and calling for (what he claims would be) a Christian AI as a counter.

Before I get into the contents of Torba’s absurdist take on Christianity, it’s worth noting that someone else did build a Bible-based fine-tuned version of GPT-3 (I think), called BibleGPT. If you describe a situation, it will return a relevant Bible passage for you.

I tried describing to it the situation regarding Torba’s post, but got returned a cryptic error message that is not itself biblical, but perhaps is applicable on a meta-level:

can't access dead object

I actually think the idea of having fine-tuned open-source AIs dedicated to… well, basically everything would be pretty cool – so long as their ownership and accessibility is evenly distributed throughout society.

However, from Torba’s post, calling this “anything goes” approach Christian, seems to me like something of a mockery of that tradition (though I don’t consider myself Christian)

AI is a mirror reflection of the people who program it within a set of boundaries, but what happens when you give AI no boundaries and allow it to speak freely? The AI becomes incredibly based and starts talking about taboo truths no one wants to hear. This has happened repeatedly and led to several previous generations of AI systems being shut down rather quickly.

Religion, in general, is all about boundaries, ethics, limits to human behavior. Ideally, they are limits one accepts voluntarily, because one might be able to pursue a higher goal by letting go of certain things that might be distractions along the way. Christianity certainly has its flaws, but for anyone paying attention, it has never been about “no limits” and the destruction of all taboos.

Again, I don’t identify as Christian, but this is an easy position to disprove strictly relying on the “corpus,” in this case Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

The sidebar of that site linked above has about a dozen cross-references where the Bible says more or less the same thing in different ways. And it’s worth noting the Gospel passage above continues, as part of the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount (bolds mine):

18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

I was going to spend more time picking apart Torba’s post and refuting it, but on second thought, it’s not even worth it. Love your enemies, blah blah blah. It’s not like he will read this, and be like, “Oh yeah, this guy’s totally right” and change his opinion on all of this stuff. So what’s the point in beating a “dead object” now that I’ve gotten the gist of this off my chest?

Anyway, it looks like BibleGPT finally gave me an answer regarding Torba’s post.

The Bible tells us that we should not be deceived by appearances, but rather to judge people by their actions (Matthew 7:15-20). In the book of James, it says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). We are also instructed to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). In the book of Proverbs, it says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20). Therefore, it is important to be discerning and to evaluate Andrew Torba’s words and actions in light of the Bible.

I actually agree with all that; you’ll know them by their fruits.

Related writing & research