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CatholiCity Podcast

Click the image below to hear me try and convince two catholic skeptics about the immorality of the stock market.

Weekly Rant

Thinking critically about AI

"My theory about advancing technologies as both our savior and our doom?'" ~ Olaf, Frozen Snowman.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has said that AI is the future and him and Elon Musk have said that AI will replace millions if not billions of jobs. Yet, both people, along with many others, are skeptical as to whether AI will be a net positive to society. Many think about dystopian futures where terminators or the Matrix rule over humanity when we talk about the problems of AI and other advanced technologies, and perhaps these fears are valid. However, I would like to take a different approach.

My personal fear about AI is highlighted by a horrific story from New Jersey. Some high school students used AI to create a pornographic deep fake of a female classmate. This is tragic and life altering for the young girl who was victimized, but it points to a big picture problem in society. Namely, that tech is consuming us. The age of the girl, I believe, was 14. I personally do not believe people should even have access to a smart phone or unsupervised access to the internet until they are at least 16, but I digress. The fact that a young teenager was so bored by not only all the potentially good things you can do on the internet but was even so bored with 'regular' porn that they felt the need to ruin someone's life by creating fake porn is simply demonic. This is a result of us being consumed by technology. Typically, when you consume something, it begins to disappear. What is disappearing in the human-technology relationship? Is tech disappearing or are we becoming less human?

AI and various technologies may come to steal our jobs, but the goal is to steal our souls. highly unintelligent people think a utopia would be produced if we did not HAVE to work, but in reality, the result would be a gluttonous, stupefied and addicted society. 

AI will probably make our lives easier, but I do not think it will make our lives more good. Good and Easy are not synonyms, more often than not they are in opposition. But when we think they mean the same thing, we become easily manipulated by Satan and his minions. The easier we have it, the more we atrophy in mind, body and spirit. I do not think advanced technology will be our doom, I think our unfettered use of technology for anything and everything will be our doom. 

Top Stories of the Week

• Stocks had their best week of the year, thanks to a job market report that showed cooling numbers. Bad news for the labor market means inflation should stifle which means rate hikes should stop and that is what causes the investing frenzy in the market. 

• WeWork the once darling coworking company for people who wanted an office is now bankrupt. Thier stock has plunged by 98% and this of course has inspired an AppleTV streaming show about the so-called eccentric owner, Adam Neumann.

• Hookup apps like Bumble, Tinder and Hinge are floundering right now because people are refusing to pay for using the apps and adds just do not cut it anymore. Hopefully this is a good sign that younger people will actually go out and at least talk to another person before deciding to fornicate. Oh, my how low of standards we have.

• Some sources claim that more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began. It is tough to say if these numbers are inflated or not since the sources are less than reliable. Either way Israel refuses to put a stop to the combat out of fear that if they let up, the retaliation by a regrouped Hamas could be even more horrific than the attack on October 7th. There are no easy answers in War. The US just approved a $320 million sale of precision bombs to Israel.

• SpaceX, the space company owned by Elon Musk, is expected to take in $15 billion in 2024. 

• A Siena College Poll recently released revealed that President Biden is trailing Donald Trump in 5 out of the 6 "battleground" states that are predicted to be the decision makers for the 2024 election. 70% of non-white voters supported Biden in the last election, but now that number is down to 49%.

• It is estimated that 1.6 million real estate agents could lose their jobs because $30 billion could potentially be leaving the industry. The reason for this is a federal jury in Missouri ruled that the National Association of Realtors and large brokers conspired to keep commissions artificially high. All predictions in this situation come from investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has reported a 40% increase in operating profits and a massive cash pile of $157 billion. This is because Buffet devested from the market over recent years and leaned heavily into treasury bills which are now yielding 5% or more.

• California has spent $4 million in taxpayer dollars on gender surgeries for Prisoners. 

• Virginia’s state legislative elections on yesterday, will determine the fate of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. All senate and house seats are up for grabs.