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For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18, ESV).
We can’t stop AI. It’s everywhere, and we have become dependent on its powers.
My daughter recently used it for a correct medical diagnosis of her husband. She found through an AI medical website that he had a condition needing treatment within 10 days. Taking the time to get an appointment, the doctor perhaps misdiagnosing the issue, and getting the right medicine (which our community didn’t have) — all of this combined would mean missing the 10-day treatment window.
Her urgency and facility with AI enabled a correct diagnosis, an appointment with the right doctor in another city, and a hospital with the right medicine, so that treatment could begin immediately. Fortunately, and prayerfully, my son-in-law is getting better.
This power of information with AI — everywhere for everyone — can’t be stopped. And we know that progress inevitably brings inherent dangers.
But first, let’s take a few words in this Interruption to understand the ultimate origin of AI, and second, why humans are naturally drawn to it.
Where did AI come from? Easy answer — God!
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
Everything created comes from our Creator. This includes humans, their reasoning, science, and even the Qubits programming in quantum computers, enabling AI. And if AI goes rogue someday, developing its own digital self-awareness, deciding humans should serve it, God can always pull the plug.
The Apostle Paul, understanding this principle of “God pulling the plug” (a couple of thousand years before Albert Einstein), wrote one of the best theorems of physics …
[Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3a).
Why is AI so desirable? Easy answer — God created us this way!
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:27-28a).
God made us to subdue all that He created. It’s innately within our DNA to learn, release, and then hopefully and ethically control the things we discover and build. Wheels to chariots to automobiles is inevitable, as we were made with minds that ask questions and seek solutions.
Yes, God created AI and meant humans to discover it, but I do have a major concern.
Let’s say we lived in 1878 and walked out onto a street of our hometown to see a Corvette, a roaring muscle engine, and a Bose® sound system blaring, with our back-then understanding of transportation only being wheels on locomotives or horse-drawn carriages — we’d be frightened by this new means of conveyance.
We might even call it evil.
That’s AI today, so powerful, so quickly evolving that our laptops and mobile devices (which we understand) are figuratively transforming from a Corvette this week, to self-flying personal transportation vehicles next week, and then the week after to space modules for everyone to explore the universe.
Human knowledge through AI is now doubling every twelve hours and soon every couple of seconds. If a spacecraft landed on the street in front of our house, what would we think and feel?
That’s precisely what’s going on with AI today: too late to curtail and perhaps to control. Wheels to carriages to Corvettes, it’s hard to imagine what’s next. However, someday God will pull the plug.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.