Bill Dembski: Pursuing Truth and Trust in AI and LLMs

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does AI stack up when it comes to accurately representing the theory of intelligent design? Today, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with mathematician and philosopher Dr. William Dembski about the reliability and accuracy of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard, particularly concerning intelligent design. This second half of the conversation highlights the importance of independent verification when using AI, as LLMs can “hallucinate” or generate false or biased information. Dembski advises an approach of verify, then trust, turning the old Russian proverb on its head. McDiarmid and Dembski also explore the potential for AI to enhance human capabilities and education if used judiciously, rather than becoming a crutch that erodes critical thinking. But that will require that we Read More › Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	ID, The Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:10.7	How does AI stack up when it comes to accurately representing the theory of
0:15.0	intelligent design?
0:16.7	Today, I conclude my conversation with mathematician and philosopher, Dr. William Dembski,
0:22.2	about AI and ID. In part one, we discussed some of Dr. Dembski's explorations into the reliability
0:29.0	and accuracy of large language models on the topic of intelligent design. In discussing his
0:35.9	back-and-forth exchanges with chat bots like ChatGPT and
0:39.5	Bard, he shows us that this new technology has promise and definitely goes beyond what Wikipedia
0:45.4	can offer for multiple reasons, but it will take work from us as well. We have to hone our
0:51.8	skills as investigators, which means asking good questions in collecting
0:56.5	other viewpoints and sources so that we can get a full picture.
1:01.0	In short, verify and then trust.
1:04.8	In this concluding segment, the discussion turns to truth and trust with AI.
1:09.8	We conclude by looking at whether AI really will
1:12.6	level the playing field for intelligent design into the future. Let's get right back to it.
1:20.6	Now, you've also written about truth and trust when it comes to AI and large language models.
1:26.6	You've written that although LLM-powered chatbots can be helpful assistants,
1:31.2	they can also be misleading to the point of being deceptive.
1:34.4	We've heard stories, of course, of how AI hallucinates,
1:37.6	simply make stuff up in order to sound intelligible
1:41.2	and to offer up an intelligible answer.
1:44.2	When it comes to the old Russian proverb, trust but verify, something Ronald Reagan fell in love with,
	...

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