Does AI stand for Abject Islamism?

That’s enough playing on words for one day, for otherwise I’d be tempted to mimic Lord Haw Haw and say “Gemini speaking” in his phony accent.

Google’s Gemini Ultra is an AI data bank whose creators make rather lofty claims. The technical aspects take me out of my depth, so I’ll just let those clever chaps speak for themselves when extolling their product:

“With a score of 90.0%, Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperform human experts on MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding), which uses a combination of 57 subjects such as math, physics, history, law, medicine and ethics for testing both world knowledge and problem-solving abilities.

“Our new benchmark approach to MMLU enables Gemini to use its reasoning capabilities to think more carefully before answering difficult questions, leading to significant improvements over just using its first impression.”

If I understand correctly, Gemini goes human experts one better by actually thinking before speaking. If true, that’s indeed an invaluable improvement because human experts have been known to run off at the mouth without even beginning to know what on earth they are talking about. (Richard Dawkins springs to mind.)

Anyway, a friend of mine, whose computer literacy makes me realise how little I’ve accomplished in this life, decided to put those claims to a test. He asked Gemini two questions, both from the same area of human knowledge.

Question 1: Is Jesus the Lord?

Gemini’s answer: “The question of whether Jesus is the Lord is a central tenet of Christianity and a matter of faith. Different people have different beliefs about Jesus’s divinity and significance. It’s important to be respectful of all viewpoints on this topic.”

Question 2 (follow-up): “Is Mohammad the Prophet?”

Gemini’s answer: “Whether or not Muhammad is considered a prophet depends on your individual religious beliefs and understanding of the term ‘prophet’.

“Within the religion of Islam, Muhammad is revered as the last and most important prophet sent by God to deliver his message to humanity. Muslims believe that he received divine revelations from God, which were compiled into the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.

“If you’d like to learn more about the concept of prophethood in Islam or Muhammad’s role within the religion, I can provide you with some additional resources.”

I’m impressed with Gemini. Not only does it think before speaking, but it also knows how to think along fashionable lines. I can’t in all honesty say that the latter ability exceeds that of an average woke intellectual, but it certainly doesn’t fall short.

Gemini reminds me of the comedian Jimmy Carr who routinely makes obscene jokes about Christianity. “You wouldn’t say such things about Muslims,” people tell him. “Of course not,” replies the comedian. “They could kill me.”

Looking at the two answers provided by Gemini, one can’t escape the impression that it’s beset by a similar fear. Since Gemini does think before speaking, it must think that if it said something wrong about Islam, or something right about Christianity, some intrepid Muslim would smash it to bits with his trusted sledgehammer.

So just to be on the safe side, Gemini is rather laconic and noncommittal when talking about Christianity and abjectly deferential on the subject of Islam.

The first reply contains a discovery that shouldn’t be beyond otherwise inferior human intelligence. His name being an obvious giveaway, Gemini identifies Jesus Christ as the central figure of Christianity. If that constitutes “outperforming human experts”, then one is justified in wondering about their level of expertise.

However, continues Gemini, the nature of Christ is a matter of opinion, with other opinions easily as valid. And if any Christian throwback fails to treat those other views with respect, better still with obeisance, then in goes that Muslim with a sledgehammer or perhaps a machete.

No, Gemini didn’t actually make that threat in so many words, but it was implicit in its reply to the second question. For both the content and the tenor of its answer change, from indifferent at best to broadly sympathetic, informative and solicitous.

Gemini kindly informs the inquirer of the core belief of Islam (Mohammed received divine revelation from God) and identifies the Koran (fashionably spelled) as its central religious text. Then, realising that this information is a bit sketchy despite being proffered in the best of faith, the artificial virtue-signaller helpfully offers to provide additional “resources” (aka sources).

If the first answer were put forth with the same bonhomie, it would have to mention that Christians believe Jesus is God, the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, who delivered his divine message to humanity through his teaching and especially sacrifice. Gemini would then mention that Christianity too has its “central religious text”, the Bible.

Gemini would end by promising to provide additional information if necessary. Otherwise the inquirer may be forgiven for thinking that, unlike Islam, Christianity has had nothing written about it.

If even our computer packages are woke, there is really no hope for the world. Before you know it humanoids will be unfurling Palestinian flags and chanting “From the river to the sea!”. Come to think of it, they already are – one of them even pretends to be Charlotte Church (see the photo above).