'Personhood ' in the Age of AI

Hands down the hardest class that I took during my theological studies was called, Philosophy of the Human Person. Honestly, I dreaded that class. Not because it presented anything wrong but because it required a ton of time to process the readings. It felt as though I were learning a new language and it exposed my shallow and ill-formed, average intellect and imagination to whoever had the laborious task of grading my papers. 

Just picking up the book, Person and Being, written by Norris Clarke (who I thought was a female writer but it turns out he was a Jesuit priest), felt like mounting a stair-master in the gym of mental gymnastics. Person and Being, that dreaded but important book “synthesized classical Thomistic metaphysics with modern phenomenology to argue that a person is not a static entity, but an intrinsically relational and self-communicating being”. Ya, I know that’s exhausting to read and that’s just a summary of what the book is about. In addition to this course which I barely passed, I had to read about Theology of the Body and ‘the personalistic norm’ in the writings of St. Pope John Paul II, the Great…”not easy”.

For Clarke, human beings possess a true existence in the real world, rather than existing merely as an idea or a product of imagination. Humans, made in the image of God, are distinct from all other created beings and non-biological things. We possess an intellect that can be self-conscious, and self-aware. As a moral agent with free will, we can be held responsible for our own actions. This was a gamble on the part of God. We can choose to reject him and deny him the love he deserves. Unlike AI we are unpredictable and subject to spontaneous reactions informed by emotions, past experiences and current mood. We are called to balance a self awareness and personality with being relational to others culminating in spiritual communion with each other and with God. 

This communion centers around an xchange of giving and receiving love. It holds that since humans are made by God in his own image we are made to be in a relationship of mutual love (like the Holy Trinity). We give by expressing ourselves through an outpouring of love and we receive wisdom and love from others so that we may grow as a person. Ideally, this begins in the family experience. The family is a natural environment for a person to learn how to exchange love rather than manipulate others or use others as a means to an end (dehumanization through objectification). This leads perfectly to the ‘personalistic norm’ on which John Paul II centered the Theology of the Body.  

The ‘personalistic norm’  is a moral principle stating that the only proper and adequate attitude toward a human person is love. First articulated in his 1960 book Love and Responsibility, this principle strikes at the bheart of utilitarianism, which treats persons as tools for pleasure or efficiency. This was a criticism of totalitarian communist economic systems, unbridled capitalism as well as a check on the sexual revolution expanding in Western countries. 

Now, especially in this age of artificial intelligence, I know why those classes and those topics matter. Like a spoiled teen faced with adulthood, I’m grateful, in hindsight, that they were imposed on me. It turns out being a real human, a person, is an extraordinary gift. 

I don’t know about you but going online these days feels like drowning in a sea of fakeness.The enthusiasm over the novelty of AI has predictably led to its over-use and ubiquity. The fleeting honeymoon period of AI and the general public has lapsed into a unique type of burnout mixed with boredom.  

With a glossy eyed nausea I find myself scrolling for real videos with real people and real human voices. The more one is plunged into fantasy the more one longs for reality. The more I experience fake images narrated by ever-so-perfect dystopian voices, the more I appreciate the relevance of the Norris Clark version of personhood and the brilliance of imperfection. 

I think for most of us who are on our phones a lot a creeping nostalgia for low tech authentic human interaction is gaining momentum. Relationships with persons who require love through a biblical level of knowing  As we become numb to the dopamine release many of us are reminded of the thrill of a spiritual gamble, a risk of rejection and a call to come out of one’s self to be corrected and refined by other people. 

I am usually skeptical about technology. As a generation X’er, my experience overall has been a mixed bag but when I first experimented with AI I was like Pinocchio set free on Pleasure Island unaware that I was being lured further and further into the demise of  creativity as I was voluntarily robbed of the satisfaction of hard work and moral development. I thought, “Why even bother writing or creating anything when AI could do it so much better with a simple prompt”. In an attempt to justify my foray into this fantasy world, I kept repeating the slogan, ‘AI won't take your job but people who use it effectively will”. So, in other words, there’s no point in running away from our inevitable dependence on AI. 

The upside of the current AI saturation online and the subsequent burn out is that we are primed to rediscover the concept of 'personhood' and why real humans matter. Also, in the midst of our dissatisfaction with AI as a messianic marvel ore light might now shine on Jesus as the true Messiah.