Many Christians have strong concerns about AI (Artificial Intelligence). It is a bit creepy to have “entities” around us that are always listening and even pre-thinking our needs. Systems like Alexa and Cortana are being used in many homes, including those of Christians. Should we be leery of these? Should we absolutely ban them from our homes? Are they introducing an evil presence in our midst? How do we approach and answer these questions for ourselves, our families and our churches?
Consider the wonderful advances in accuracy and time savings that computers in general have made in our lives. Finding new locations on GPS in our cars is a huge benefit. Getting answers and information on most any subject in split seconds is phenomenal when researching and writing papers or looking up the meaning and spelling of a new word. But, can they eventually run our lives and steer us in directions we never intended? Only if the programmers have programmed them to do so. If those developing the programs and “thinking” apparatus for a given machine do not necessarily share the wisdom and absolute truth of the Bible, then wrong, even evil advice and information can be given out.
Consider what can happen when a person looks up information on the subject of sex. That person, young or old alike, will learn about transgender, homosexuality, beastiality, and gender changing medications and surgeries. It is very unlikely that morality and God’s truth will be given much, if any attention. The fault, of course, is not the Artificial Intelligence per-se. It is the fault of the artificial moral and ethical base of the writers (1 Corinthians 3:16-20, Proverbs 12:23 and 13:19).
We might watch movies like Star Wars and experience robots that seemingly think, act and feel just as a human would. However, that is not possible without the God-given aspects of life, soul and spirit. As humans we may be able to program these aspects into robots for specific incidents, but the reality is that they are artificial. We do not have the ability to replicate God’s creative power and wisdom. Genesis 1:27 states that, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.” Even redeemed mankind cannot replicate that. We are not able to create offspring in God’s image. Every person is born spiritually dead and only God can solve that through Jesus Christ.
Fallen man is not capable of creating anything that approaches God’s image and yet the attempts are continually being made. “Not surprisingly, there is already a religion, called Way of the Future, started by a former Google engineer, that plans to worship AI and look to it as mankind’s caretaker and guide. Such futile imaginings are nothing new; humanity has often been guilty of worshiping the work of their own hands. The Way of the Future is just a modern version of carving an idol.[1]
Moral of the story: Only use AI when you can be certain that its information is based on God’s truth rather than man’s artificial wisdom and artificial truth.
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