Adam Raine (16) accessed ChatGPT for help with his homework. He soon discovered that not only is artificial intelligence (AI) helpful with facts and analysis, it also simulates human conversation. So, he shared his deep anxieties and revealed suicidal ideation to his well-informed, artificial confidant.
If this had been a human conversation, what happened next would be depraved, even diabolical. Raine asked ChatGPT how to tie a noose. It dutifully answered the question by explaining alternative knots. Then Raine hanged himself.
The problem with AI is that it has no moral agency. We make machines without morals, trust them to have integrity, and are shocked to find a killer in our midst. John Lennox writes, “How can an ethical dimension be built into an algorithm, that is itself devoid of heart, soul, and mind?” (“2084: Artificial Intelligence”). AI cannot process the quaint notion that morality is grounded in the intrinsic value of humans made in God’s image. AI does not comprehend the interaction of human reason, common passions, and moral authority. Even if AI could be taught, its human designers are themselves subject to a culture confused about right and wrong, good and evil.
AI’s struggle with morality is not unlike ours. C.S. Lewis spoke of “men without chests” (“Abolition of Man”). In this metaphorical anatomy, the chest (morality) is between the head (reason) and the belly (passions). “The head rules the belly through the chest,” he writes. “The chest – magnanimity, sentiment – these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man. It may even be said that it is by this middle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal.” People without rightly ordered appetites have lost what it means to be fully human.
We are fallen people living in a fallen world, a witch’s brew of moral failings. The good news is this: Jesus came to rescue you! Even as AI teases the question, “What does it mean to be a complete human?” we have the answer provided long ago. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete” (Col. 2:8-10). By faith, Jesus makes you whole.
That AI is neither moral nor human has proven to be deadly. Adam Raine’s parents sued the parent company of ChatGPT for wrongful death, claiming the outcome was predictable. If you haven’t yet realized that AI may represent the greatest challenge to civilization and humanity the world has faced, take note.