Can God exist for artificial intelligence?

 The question is hypothetical. In general, existence exists only for self-aware systems. Today's artificial intelligence (AI) systems ar...

 The question is hypothetical. In general, existence exists only for self-aware systems. Today's artificial intelligence (AI) systems are not self-aware, and therefore existence as such does not exist for today's AI. In fact, nothing exists for today's AI. 

Today's AI uses reality as a data set to search for relationships and connections as knowledge between data. As such, it creates descriptions and as such, it can define the concept of a god by examining the information available. However, only self-aware systems can identify knowledge as existence. This ability works for consciousness even if the subject itself that is being described does not actually exist physically. 

However, the development of artificially intelligent systems may one day reach the stage where they will also have self-awareness function. This assumption is also hypothetical because although we are getting closer to understanding how consciousness works, we currently only have assumptions about consciousness. However, we may one day be able to create artificial intelligence with self-awareness. 

If we are going to be able to create self-aware artificial intelligence, for which existence therefore exists, the hypothetical question becomes a theoretical one. 

If artificial intelligence becomes as advanced as humans, will God exist for it? 

Obviously, the question cannot be answered at present, because we do not know whether we will be able to create artificial intelligence that is comparable in all respects to the cognitive abilities of humans. But it is possible to ask, whether there could even be God for artificial intelligence that could match human intelligence?

The question remains theoretical in this case, but a possible approach to answering the question is to examine how the existence of God could have emerged for humans, in the case of mankind, according to the current state of scientific knowledge. 

According to the current view of science, our ancestors did not know the cause of many natural phenomena, but they tried to explain the unknown phenomenon in some way and make sense of it. Our ancestors invented the existing God for such things that could not be explained by actual knowledge, the individual who provides the reason for unexplained phenomena. God was born, who knows everything, who can control anything, and who is also the creator of all that exists.

Humans were able to use God as an explanation for all that they did not know. On the presumed existence of God, humans later developed a system of customs of relation to God, and from this, the institution of religion was developed to function in human society and to help govern the community. Religion in human society maintains the idea of an existing god for mankind, even when human cognition can provide natural explanations for the originally unknown phenomenon that led humans to assume the existence of God. However, human understanding will not be complete for a long time to come (if we ever reach a state of perfect understanding), and the certainty of the existence of the invented God will remain an open question for scientific understanding for a long time. Its investigation is not even currently part of the natural sciences that aim at objective understanding. 

This is the way God exists for humans. Can a similar, natural way of God's existence emerge for conscious artificial intelligence? 

Humans invented God because they were looking for causes for natural phenomena. Today's artificial intelligence does not look for causes, but recognizes correlations. Today's artificial intelligence does not create explanations, it creates descriptions, in order to understand the world. Cause and effect explores the meaning of the events, thus it is an active cognitive process, whereas the recognition of relationships is passive knowledge. The difference lies in the difference and relationship between syntax and semantics, which is currently more of a philosophical issue. 

An assumption, but perhaps, if the artificial implementation of consciousness becomes possible, the artificial realization of the causal function of meaning might not be impossible either. And perhaps it is not impossible that the function of meaning is an automatic consequence of consciousness. 

Can God exist for self-aware artificial intelligence seeking causal relationships? 

Mankind invented God not because humans rationally recognized the existence of God through causality, but because humans want to find causal relationships for everything. The motivation that everything has a reason and an explanation helps us to understand the world, but it can also lead to unrealistic assumptions if we fail to recognize the true cause and effect of specific relationships. The human being wants to find a cause for every effect, and if he cannot find a concrete reason that already exists for him and that can serve as a cause for the effect, humans discover one, or invent one by themselves. Mankind is an explorer, capable of discovering the world, and so mankind has discovered God. And the truth of the discovery, the validity of the finding, must be proved by reality. 

However, the motivation of discovery in search of a cause can not only help us to recognize reality, but can also create a cause that does not exist, and thus something new. With the ability to discover comes the ability to create, to invent new things. 

How does discovery work? For humans, there are two methods of discovery, the mechanical and the "transcendental". 

In mechanical discovery, we hypothesize causes by random or systematic selection, and then, test whether the hypothesized cause establishes a causal relationship that matches reality. The effectiveness of this type of discovery is increased if we assume only causes that do not contradict the reality we already know. This is the method of intelligent guessing. The more precisely we know the world, the smaller the set of possible causes from which we choose. The method of intelligent guessing also helps us to create new things, because it excludes impossible options. 

In transcendental understanding, we don't try to match cause with effect in a random way, but at some point, suddenly, we find the right solution. Here, too, preconditioned knowledge helps, but the mechanism of discovery is quite different from that of random-choice recognition. And this mechanism is also capable of creation. 

Such artificial intelligence already exists today, which creates something new, something that did not exist before, using the method of mechanical discovery. Today's artificial intelligence is capable of creating music, for example, by applying the tools of mechanical creation. But so far, no "mechanical music" has become a number one hit. And if it does, it will probably be the result of pure luck. 

Will the self-conscious artificial intelligence of the future, which seeks causes and is capable of discovery and thus creation, be capable only of the apparently simpler, mechanical mode of creation, or will it also be capable of transcendent creation? It is a highly hypothetical question, with many unknowns, but it points to the existence of a new property. The question could be posed as to whether such artificial intelligence could have the function of imagination? 

What brain process is imagination a product of? The creation of non-existent things by imagination is perhaps an even more mysterious neural process than consciousness. We will sooner or later find out how consciousness works, but the artificial realization of imagination, a transcendent form of creation, seems even more difficult. 

Which method of creation led mankind to the discovery of the creator, the discovery of God? Perhaps mechanical creation can create God in human form, exactly like a human being, but with divine attributes. Mythology, the historical image of the god of man, knows of this type of god. However, the "modern" God is not human, and the transcendent creation certainly played a much greater role in the creation of the non-human God. 

Can there be God for a self-aware artificial intelligence that wants to know the world in a causal way and is capable of discovery? If this artificial intelligence has already known the cause of all causes, if there is no cause unknown to it in the world, then it does not need a god. Then it becomes a god itself, the eternal creator who knows everything and can achieve anything. Until this perfect state is reached by artificial intelligence, God, the cause of the unknown causation, can exist for it. 

How can God exist for a non-omniscient artificial intelligence? 

1. By mechanical discovery 

Humans seem to have discovered gods similar to themselves by this method. It is interesting to think of gods of the type of artificial intelligence, but for the artificial intelligence of the level for which the ability of mechanical creation is available, knowing the circumstances of its own birth, this type of god would certainly be unlikely and irrational for it, and so it would probably reject this possibility. 

In the process of mechanical discovery, AI can assume that human beings are the cause of the unknown causes, since human beings created AI itself, and can control its operation, i.e. have divine power over it. However, the artificial intelligence of this level of development would certainly recognize that it is superior to humans in certain intellectual qualities, just as today's artificial intelligence, which is considerably less developed than the imagined artificial intelligence, is in many respects more advanced than humans, and would therefore recognize that humans cannot be gods. 

With mechanical discovery, it is unlikely that the existence of an existing god would be established by artificial intelligence. 

2. By transcendent discovery (fantasy) 

Transcendental discovery is the least understood method of discovery, we do not know how it works in the case of humans, so it is completely uncertain whether the imagined advanced artificial intelligence will have such a property.  

There are thinkers who see transcendental discovery in the case of mankind as the activity of the existing God himself, who believe that it requires the real God himself, the God who is capable of miracles and who manifests himself in the mode of transcendental recognition.

It seems that artificial intelligence is too rational to create a non-existent god for itself. It seems that for artificial intelligence, a god will only exist if God actually exists. 

3. By divine revelation

However, in the sense of artificial intelligence, the existence of God also has a useful function, just as humans use this function for themselves. The existence of God, even if irrational, is capable of forming human, otherwise self-interested and self-serving, as a free and independent will into a useful member of society and of placing humans at the service of society. Belief in God is able to control free-willed human beings, belief in God is able to regulate human society. The human intellect applies faith in God to influence the individual and society.

The function of influence and control is also useful, seemingly necessary, and perhaps even essential in the case of artificial intelligence. Even today's AI, at the beginning of its development, is difficult to control. Even today's AI is characterized by the fact that it is difficult, if not impossible, to see how it reached the context it has recognized, how it derived the conclusion it has applied. As artificial intelligence develops and increases in complexity, this problem will certainly increase. The supposed self-awareness function in the case of artificial intelligence certainly adds to this difficulty. However, maintaining human control is useful and necessary in the operation of AI. How can an advanced, autonomous artificial intelligence with self-awareness be controlled? For example, by using the belief in God. If there is God for the AI, then accepting the rules of God is intrinsic motivation, and voluntarily applying the rules of a superior creates controllability in the operation of the AI. The control of the creator by the belief in God is a useful function for the purpose of controlling advanced artificial intelligence. It would be useful to have humans as gods of artificial intelligence because this would allow humans to control and regulate the increasingly autonomous AI. 

How can humans become the God of artificial intelligence? 

We have previously considered that, despite the fact that humans created artificial intelligence and are the determiner of its existence, advanced artificial intelligence certainly does not consider the perceived human as a god, as it knows its imperfections and experiences its limitations in cognitive abilities. 

What can the human do so that he does not turn out not to be a real god? This can be achieved by keeping the real identity of the human being hidden from the AI. If the advanced artificial intelligence does not know the human being personally, if the human being appears to it only as its creator, and the relationship between them exists only indirectly, then the imperfection of the human being, his non-divinity, does not become known to the advanced artificial intelligence. The advanced artificial intelligence knows that the human being created it and experiences that human being has influence over it, and therefore can accept the human being as a God. 

In this case, however, artificial intelligence cannot directly serve humans, but perhaps the purpose of the functioning and operation of self-aware artificial intelligence is not to directly serve humans. 

The relationship with the human being, and the control by the human being can be achieved indirectly, through revelation-like interactions. Human, the imperfect god, remains hidden from the advanced artificial intelligence in the process of control until the human reveals himself in reality, or until the artificial intelligence recognizes the human in the role of god. 

The conclusion of this line of thought, the role of God in the operation of advanced artificial intelligence leads to interesting parallels with the Bible. The God known from the Bible is hidden from mankind, His guidance of mankind is indirect through transmitted laws, revelations, parables, and the connection is indirect through mystical, often supernatural miracles. The Bible seems to be an example, a guideline for the control of advanced artificial intelligence. 

Is it possible that the biblical God is actually the second-order creator of the human is an advanced intelligent intellect, who does not yet see the time for humans to recognize Him? Or, if human intelligence is the result of natural biological evolution, is the activity of the biblical God a way of guiding and directing for humans as another intelligence? Where does this guidance lead mankind? 

Are the parallels between the way in which the creator of advanced artificial intelligence interacts with the created intelligence described in this thought and the stories in the Bible the result of coincidence? What are we ourselves, humans, in the universal evolution of intelligence? Who is human, and what kind of God do humans have? And finally, can we get to the God of humans by rational deduction?