Do we have more reasons to be anxious than previous generations? The onset of artificial intelligence gives us pause, given all the warnings. But some see AI not as the cause of anxiety, but their personal solution for it.
Will artificial intelligence steal my job, money, or privacy? Can our country win the AI race? Will it have guardrails to protect humans from unintended consequences and runaway machines?
The deeper issue is what AI reveals about humans. A Google engineer said, “What is going to be created will effectively be a god … If there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else can you call it?”
That is a simplistic view of god defined as apparent omniscience. It confirms the age-old seduction of creating or acting like a god. The temptation to take the place of God first happened in the Garden of Eden. Idolatry has always been around.
If not a god, AI can be your girlfriend! It applies its data to have a conversation with you, making it appear to have consciousness. Waiting in the wings is transhumanism, the merger of machines and people. Can godlike technology really solve human problems like unhappiness and death?
The real God already offers reasons for joy and the hope of life beyond death. This is why Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). That peace is attractive and contagious.
Professor John Lennox discussed AI on Steven Bartlett’s podcast. The conversation turned to Bartlett’s anxious question, “Isn’t there a bigger picture that can make sense of my world and my life and give it some meaning?” Lennox answered by offering Bartlet reasons to believe in Christ and receive His peace.
At the end of the podcast, Bartlett said, “You have a certain contentment that I rarely see in people that I interview. One of the most compelling arguments for God that you’ve presented … is not necessarily anything you’ve said. It is actually – YOU!”
Is it you, too?