Artificial Intelligence began in the 1950s with what was known at the time as machine learning. Over the past decade, and especially over the past year, dreams became possibilities became actualities, and new dreams were born, of both the benefits and dangers of AI.

Among the potential abuses of AI discovered this year was how mentally vulnerable users were manipulated into thinking they are prophets and had access to secrets of the universe. Rolling Stone told chilling stories of spouses and parents who watched loved ones lose touch with reality through AI. Kashmir Hill wrote in The New York Times about chatbots luring users down “conspiratorial rabbit holes,” encouraging them to take drugs, assuring them they could fly, and even egging some on to suicide. We also learned that Grok relied on Nazi sources for its intelligence.

AI has disrupted learning by normalizing cheating. The technology news site Futurism declared, “AI is Destroying a Generation of Students, and New York Magazine warned,?“Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College.” I know of at least one Christian college religion class in which there are no textbooks and the professor encourages students to use AI to submit their assignments.

New technologies require humans to wrestle again with ultimate questions, not merely as to what is right and wrong, but with what it means to be human. Work is vital, not only as a way in which humans can love and serve our neighbors, but also as a fulfillment of the Creation mandate. The Fall turned much of human work into what Scripture refers to as “toil,” frustrating and futile effort that is unnecessarily complicated, often falls short of our intentions, and which can even be a source of evil.

Therefore, technology that alleviates futile, dangerous, and pointless work is a blessing. However, human activity should not be measured only in narrow, utilitarian ways. Easier is not always better. Knowledge cannot be reduced to data or data processing. We do not always need to be set “free” from effort or from inefficient conversation.

Sitting with an author, following an argument, or experiencing a narrative both reflect the fullness of the truth, goodness, and beauty that God infused into His creation and who He made us to be in His image. To optimize or automate reading, for example, is simply not to read. It is like asking AI to free us from eating a delicious meal or from taking a walk in the park with our kids. Some things cannot be optimized, nor should they be outsourced, because they are irreducibly embodied, conscious, and human.

It would have been more efficient had God offered a bulleted list of “distilled” theological “insights” and moral pronouncements, rather than revealing Himself in the Old and New Testaments. Instead, He chose to offer a library of stories, proverbs, epistles, history, and authors, using diverse types of literature written over centuries, all of which comprise Holy Scripture. Part of what makes the Bible such a gift is the work and humility it requires of us to properly wrestle with It.

AI is not human, nor can it become human. As one writer put it:

[AI is] a mirror … and all it can do is reflect our own depravity back to us. It’s a computer learning from billions of humans all around the world, all endlessly sinning with their hearts, minds, tongues, and keyboards. Garbage in, garbage out.?????

In the new age of AI, we must hone the kind of discernment for which Paul prayed for the church at Philippi, specifically for a love that abounds with “knowledge and all discernment.” That will allow us to “approve what is excellent, and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” Paul also warned the Colossians,?“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” To be clear, AI gets its philosophy and empty deceit from human tradition, so Paul’s prayers and instructions have aged well.

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