AI OK?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making huge headlines lately. This is a topic that I never liked thinking about or debating. For a person like myself whose whole blog is dedicated to life experiences and faith intersections that attitude may seem improbable. But, I have indeed went to extraordinary lengths to avert my eyes when the topic of advances in artificial intelligence come up on a news site. I have even been known to immediately shut the television off or switch channels when the ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence are about to be discussed.

As much as I hate that dude Sigmund Freud, it is pretty clear that in this case, he got my number when he discussed the mechanism of avoidant behavior. Avoidant behavior occurs when in response to a difficult problem or situation one just does everything they can to avoid dealing with it. Why would the topic of artificial intelligence be that overwhelming for me? Why don’t I applaud the progress that AI promises? 

I got a bad feeling about AI the first time that I ever heard of it. Artificial Intelligence origins go back to the early 1950’s when scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Stanford University began to conceive of the future advances that would be made possible by computers. Two names that were pivotal in moving forward the science of AI were John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. 

They were both professors at MIT at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. They are credited with being some of the earliest researchers interested in creating a machine based intelligence. MIT engineers had simultaneously created an early version of a “robotic arm” that could play ping-pong. As far as Stanford University goes, it had S.A.I.L. That stands for Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Both of these laboratories had an enormous amount of military and government funding with which to work. Red flag maybe? 

The visions and dreams espoused by AI researchers always seemed less humanity enhancing and more humanity enslaving whenever I thought about them. Also, some of the scientists in this field seemed more like cult followers than scientists. The proximity of machine intelligence and robotic capabilities goes back to the very early days of research, and therein lies the rub. Then came a time after the initial excitement on the topic that it was no longer garnering the attention nor the funding it needed to continue. In the early 1970’s the AI community overpromised and underdelivered. In fact, a number of companies with AI in their names went out of business. This  time is often referred to as “AI winter.” During that time, disciples akin to some sort of demonic Star Wars Jedi knights went underground and kept the dream alive of machine learning and continued to contribute to its’ research. 

Now, this body of research has advanced so much that AI is poised to control every aspect of our life. It will be involved in health care doing surgery, it will run our airplanes and other modes of transportation. It can write better books than we can and beat us in Jeopardy and Chess. Robotic dogs with artificial intelligence just went into a collapsed parking garage in New York CIty to search for survivors. AI fire fighters fight chemical blazes that would kill us, isn’t that great? Yes, if we used this as a proper tool but, the scuttlebutt is that ain’t gonna happen!

Let’s think about what a good tool is. A tool is something that we invent that makes a job easier and supplements our intellectual or physical abilities. So, something might be too heavy for us to lift but, the invention of the wheel means that we can use a wedge, another great simple machine and foist it onto that cart with wheels and the burden is light enough for us to move. Brilliant. You know what I love about the invention of the first car, the Model T? That when you were done with it, you could shut it off and it wasn’t tracking you all the time!

Our tools have always had the capability of backfiring, but never like with AI. The best of the science fiction writers saw this coming as did the biblical prophecy scholars. Sin is like dust, it gets into everything even our precious inventions. In our God rejecting world, the dangers of technology going awry are at the highest threat level. The movement that says science will answer all the questions and they don’t need God, are moving us towards societal disaster. God leads us to holiness and mitigates our sin nature whether we are scientists, sanitation workers, teachers or preachers.  

The atheist scientists that brought you COVID, are working on artificial intelligence for our lives. Oh boy. God in the equation of science equals order and sanity but without God, the temptations are too great. The promise of what AI can do for the non-believer remind me of the Gollum character in “Lord of the Rings,” and Eve in the Garden of Eden. All this you can have, just follow Satan. 

Do I believe the devil is in the details? Yes, he always is. Those who don’t know that and don’t recognize how he operates are victims of the evil he is perpetuating. Do you really want to have nuclear launches controlled with AI? ChatGBT has already been shown to have a liberal bias in matters of politics, gender issues, and a morally relativistic bent. In that fact, AI is already leading people away from the one true God and the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ. Don’t be fooled AI is not as smart as you think or it is smarter than you think. 

Every nation with a modicum of power is going after precious AI. Vladimir Putin once said, that the country that led in technologies using artificial intelligence will dominate the world. Follow the rolling ball, rule the world who wants to do that? The common thinking that I have heard is whoever leads in AI in 2030, will rule the world until 2100. This all perfectly fits in with end times biblical prophecy. It fits like a glove actually.

In the fight for world dominance we know that Satan will appear at some point soon. But right now it is like an AI prize fight. It’s China in the first round hitting hard but the USA floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. The E.U. is waiting to fight the winner. Just like any prize fight each competitor has their strengths and weaknesses and each country has attributes which could bring it into the ascendency. 

Is it China with its’ army from the East (Rev 16:12-The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its’ water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.) or is the anti-Christ emerging from the E.U.? (Rev 13 :2-And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.) Will New York being a contender for the whore of Babylon affect the United States standing? (Rev 17:1b-2-the great prostitute who sits by many waters. With the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries)

However it plays out, we know that AI is not OK. While good achievements will emanate from this technology, it appears to me to be the technology that has the greatest capability of being a tool for controlling the entire world. Yet, I believe that we have reached the point of no return, this genie ain’t going back in its’ bottle. At the beginning of the nuclear age, people had a sense of the power of this invention and an understanding that this was bigger than anything that had come before. As he watched the first successful nuclear weapon detonation physicist Robert Oppenheimer famously remarked, that “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” 

Artificial Intelligence is the next big step that mankind will embark upon and many people have varying reactions to that. That is how it was at Los Alamos when the first nuclear weapon exploded. There were varying reactions. Some were reconciled to its’ inevitability on the world stage, some cried, and some even laughed. As a Christian, I am ready for what is written in the Bible to occur. That which is written will come about and it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to keep close to God, tell others about Jesus. Don’t be bowled over by all the promises of AI, there may be some blessings in it but be wary of its’ dark side.