A Final Commission

No idols or sorcery

  • illusion of intelligence: AI abilities can seem magical, but you know better now
  • temptation of sorcery: if we know how to use it, seems like that gives us secret powers

Avoid both of these; love God and neighbor.

Walk in light

  • be transparent about your work (goals, data, design decisions, etc.)
  • be accountable for what you make (and hold other systems accountable)

(Don’t follow the example of OpenAI!)

Do justice.

Be humble.

A Commission

You’ve spent a semester learning what’s actually inside these systems.

That makes you the person in the room who can:

  • Tell a demo from a reliable system
  • Spot when a metric is being gamed
  • Notice the stakeholder no one mentioned
  • Say “please don’t give it that much authority” — and be specific about why

That’s a stewardship. Use it to protect people who can’t audit the code themselves. Be honest about what you don’t know. Build things that serve — and refuse to build things that don’t.

“My word that goes out from my mouth … will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” — Isaiah 55:11

Go well.

Final Logistics

  • Project reports due end of day today
    • something should be submitted today
    • revisions until end of finals
  • Project reflections due tomorrow
  • Optional but encouraged: debrief meeting with me sometime before grades due

Suggestions:

  • Make a portfolio that includes your project report
  • Follow good AI / ML newsletters or social media channels