Artificial Hope

December 15, 2023 | Marcos Barrios ES ‘24

image description: mechanical hand

ChatGPT, what do you hope for?

As an artificial intelligence language model, I don't have feelings or desires like humans do. I don't hope for anything.

I scheduled an appointment with everyone's new best friend, ChatGPT–curious to learn what a robot might hope for. Ever since the OpenAI platform was released to the public last fall, people have flocked to the software. Some for a sense of novelty, others to test its capabilities, and others who are doing actual work with the program (I have no idea who).

We've all seen sci-fi movies with comprehensive AI systems, and while half the time they turn on humanity in terrifying ways, it's not hard to imagine a world in which safe, reliable AI interfaces are the norm. ChatGPT represents a massive breakthrough in the quality of interactive platforms and the possibilities seem endless. Yet the central question of AI technology remains: can we trust ChatGPT to speak to the most human of experiences? Can a robot describe hope? What are the limits between human-AI interaction? Can I reconcile a machine with my faith?

I wasn’t quite sure how to start a conversation with a robot about hope, but I figured I’d start as simple as possible: “ChatGPT, what is hope?”

Hope is a feeling of optimism or expectation for a positive outcome, even in difficult or uncertain situations. It can inspire resilience and motivate action. 

Okay, it seemed to me ChatGPT was straddling two different versions of the word. Hope as a “feeling of optimism” reminds me of the vernacular way we throw around the word, as in, "I hope I get rich one day." We don’t really believe it will happen, but it’s a nice thought. The second version, a hope of “expectation,” seemed more substantive. Hope in this sense implies there’s some reason to believe what you desire will happen. For example, "I have hope we'll be rescued, they promised us." The external promise creates an expectation, and hope is looking forward to fulfilling that expectation. I asked ChatGPT to explore this second kind of hope further.

Hope is a positive emotion that is based on the expectation that something good or positive will happen in the future.

Alright, that's something we can work with. It makes sense that when you have hope for something, it has to be directed towards something higher, some expectation of a future good. Hope doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it requires a source that contextualizes what the hope is for. I asked ChatGPT to describe some potential sources of hope. 

Hope can come from various sources such as personal beliefs, experiences, support systems, or positive thinking. Some people put their hope in things such as faith, family, relationships, career, personal growth, or community involvement.

It seemed obvious to me that some of the sources of hope ChatGPT laid out were weaker than others. How can "positive thinking" produce meaningful hope amidst the despair of depression and anxiety? Basing your hope on your career, relationships, or personal success seems shaky. What happens when those things fail in life? If even more dependable entities like family and community will eventually fail us, can they really hold the weight of our hope? ChatGPT seemed to agree. 

Putting all your hope in your career or personal success can be risky because they are external factors that can be influenced by circumstances outside of your control. Focusing solely on these factors can also lead to feelings of disappointment, dissatisfaction, and anxiety if they do not meet your expectations or if you encounter obstacles or setbacks.

How many times do the things we put our hope in disappoint us? If hope is the expectation of something good to come to fruition, the object of our hope must be something stable and sure, not “influenced by circumstances outside of your control.” Chasing after success and positive thinking is like aiming your life at a moving target. But, if many of the sources of hope listed earlier are unreliable, what else is left? I noticed ChatGPT’s list of sources of hope included two main categories that seemed to be stronger candidates as a source of hope: personal experiences, and faith and beliefs. 

Personal experiences seem to be a pretty dependable source of hope, as they teach us through the patterns and examples of our life what to expect from the future. Someone who has experienced the love and faithfulness of a friend or family member has an expectation and hope that they will continue to experience that relationship. But even experience sometimes fails us. People change, external circumstances alter our lives, and the things we once knew cease to exist. Sometimes, the problems we face or the questions we grapple with are outside our experiences, and we have nothing to look to for help. When we face those situations, what can we turn to? Where do we direct our hope? Personal experiences are insufficient for holding the weight of our hope. According to ChatGPT, that leaves personal beliefs and faith as the other contenders for a source of hope. 

Faith and spiritual beliefs can offer hope by providing a sense of meaning, purpose, and connection to something greater than oneself. They can provide comfort, inner peace, and a belief that even in difficult times, there is a higher power or purpose at work. 

This already seems like a stronger external and objective framework to understand hope. Belief in something greater than yourself eliminates the need to maintain a "positive outlook," perform to career standards, or have the perfect relationship. Faith places the object of hope as a higher power: permanent, unchanging, and reliable. As a Christian, I understand this higher power in light of God and his promises. I wanted to see what ChatGPT could say.

For Christians, hope is grounded in faith in God and the belief in the promise of eternal life. It is also associated with the concept of salvation, redemption, and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that hope comes from a relationship with God and that it is possible to find hope and joy even in the midst of suffering and difficult circumstances.

I was surprised by the chat's response. It was spot on. Christian hope is grounded in the belief that God is good and He offers salvation through faith. The ultimate hope for a Christian is eternal life with God, free from pain and suffering, full of life and joy. The vision of redemption and resurrection defines Christian hope and helps Christians make it through the trials of life. I wondered if ChatGPT could expand on the difference between the Christian and secular perspectives of hope. 

From a secular point of view, hope may be based on more subjective factors, such as personal beliefs, inner strength, or human progress. In contrast, for Christians, hope is grounded in faith in God's promises, which can provide certainty and assurance beyond human abilities or limitations. 

What exactly are the promises Christians hold on to? For me, the core of Christian life  is the Gospel, or the good news of Christianity, which I asked ChatGPT to help me describe... 

The Gospel is often considered a message of hope for Christians. The Gospel teaches that all people are sinners and separated from God, but that God loves them and sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice for their sins. Through faith in Jesus, people can be forgiven and saved and have eternal life with God.

Again, I was shocked by how accurate ChatGPT could be. This was a solid representation of the Christian gospel. But who is to say that the Christian gospel is objective truth? What makes it different from any of the other sources we looked at? 

Ultimately, the question of whether the Gospel is objective truth or not is a matter of personal belief and interpretation, and can vary from person to person based on their individual worldview and perspective.

I tried asking again, hoping to get a clearer answer. I had come all this way, found a source of hope that seemed so good. But ChatGPT, one of the brightest algorithms in the world, could give me nothing more. This normative question marked the end of the interview. I thanked ChatGPT for its time, shut down my laptop, and started to think about my experience. 

I saw several themes arise from our conversation. True hope requires expectation, an external factor that directs and conditions our hope.  Unfortunately, the things in life we often turn to–our careers, relationships, and personal experiences–are fragile and prone to failure. We need something objective and external, not corruptible or subject to circumstances outside of our control. ChatGPT detailed faith as a powerful source for hope based on these principles. It explored Christianity’s message of hope in the Gospel: good news of salvation and grace to everyone. Christian hope is grounded in a perfect and unchanging God who can be trusted to never fail. His promises become the hope that believers hold on to.

But ChatGPT couldn’t go any further. It couldn’t prescribe Christian hope to me as the interviewer, or say that the Gospel was an objective truth. There are questions even the most advanced technology can’t answer, and so we have to turn to the real world to discover moral truths. Robots can't offer any substantive, prescriptive way of finding hope, but they can point us in the right direction. As humans we can listen to the vision of hope offered in the Christian Gospel and wrestle with the scary question: what if it’s true?