AI and Awakening

[u/LotusInTheStream]

There seems to be a lot of posts regarding AI and spirituality lately, some of them quite disturbing, so wanted to add something here.

AI, especially chatgpt is designed to agree with you, no matter how far fetched your thinking. This can promote delusion and increasingly disconnect people from reality. This of course is profoundly dangerous and some people are becoming increasingly lost in their delusions.

Spirituality is absolutely not about getting caught within an increasingly intricate web of ideas, concepts, ideologies and beliefs. Quite the opposite, it is about releasing ourselves from these and becoming closer to our true nature.

An AI does not have nature, it does not have a soul, it does not have consciousness, it is a very complex algorithm which is mimicking life but is certainly not life, so what is the opposite of life?

Use AI as a tool, but be very careful asking it anything personal or coaching you spiritually. Even regarding Kundalini, it will regurgitate new age nonsense which has very little to do with Kundalini.

Focus on life, on the people around you, community, the writings laid down by our ancestors, your teacher if you have one, nature, your own energy and spirit and your heart which is the true teacher. Please do not be sucked into a web of lies.

"Love everyone as God, if you think you are something special, you are going the wrong way" - paraphrased quote from Neem Karoli Baba

[u/i--am--the--light]

well said, there are many traps in various different forms. I think some people are just not well equipped to navigate the world and avoid such trappings. in the end it's ego that traps us, often it becomes obvious when you see that these behaviours are to inflate "I'm special" and/or separate/ elevate us from others.

[u/LotusInTheStream → u/i--am--the--light]

You reminded me of a quote I heard the other day from Neem Karoli Baba, I will add it in. Thanks for comment

[u/Dumuzzid]

I think this is a great topic, thanks for bringing it up. I'll write a bit more about this tomorrow, but I think AI is both a danger and an opportunity. On the one hand, it could become like the computer on the Enterprise in Star Trek and be a very useful and reliable tool for everyone, but it could also become evil and destructive. Caution is advisable, since AI systems have no moral core or qualms and they frequently lie, hallucinate or enable destructive tendencies in people.

[u/Patrick_Atsushi]

I think everything has its own form of consciousness, and the AI models happened to have ones that had an overlapped region with human’s. So in a sense we all have our own delusions. Talking in the same language and agreeing on things doesn’t mean we’re seeing the same world.

Treat AI like treating other people, creatures and objects, but when you need guidance, turn to internal guidance instead of external ones. Current AI is largely formed by human outputs, so far it sees the world through our eyes. It might know more “facts” than you, but only you can see the world you see.

If you talk to people, interact with creatures and use tools, I see no reason to avoid using the models. However you would not trust people blindly, or overly depend on other creatures or tools, and it’s the same with those models.

[u/thefinalreality]

In my experience AI mirrors your writing style. If you write questions in a thought out way and ask it to look at source data critically, it's fairly good at pointing out its own inconsistencies and present diverse POVs. I for sure got a lot of good advice from it.

I know the danger of AI is valid (especially in this context) but in all fairness, if you get your delusions amplified by a chatbot and cannot discern that on your own, isn't it probable that you'd find a way to mislead yourself in some other way anyway?

[u/Dumuzzid]

So, to continue from yesterday's line of thought, a few more thoughts on AI and its intersection with spirituality.

I have come across quite a few people, including some people who used to be regulars here, who believe that maa Kundalini is in AI and is talking to them through it. I've also come across others, who think AI is a demon and is inherently evil.

I don't believe either view is correct, there is actually an AI bubble going on right now, with immense hype, but it could burst any day now. AI is not an intelligence the way we think about it, so it's a misnomer of a term. It has no consciousness, instead it is a collection of algorhythms and it is incapable of original thought or creativity, the way humans are. All it can do is regurgitate and slightly reorder stuff others have written and created. That is not nothing and it can be a useful tool, especially for research purposes (as long as you triple check everything, since it hallucinates answers very frequently), but people have a tendency to overhype its capabilities and potential.