“The Lord records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.”” Psalm 87:6-7 ESV
Reflection: why are many people so excited about artificial intelligence, or AI?
Unless you decided to disconnect completely from society, you have probably heard a lot of talk about AI. The buzz about AI is everywhere, in every segment of industry and society. How AI will soon take over everything, seems like if you listen to the news. Even governments are competing, to be ahead in this race. But, if you ask a random person on the street, “What is AI?”, most people probably wouldn’t be able to answer. So, if people don’t really know what it is, isn’t it strange why so many are excited about it? If we think back around 30 years ago, the same buzz was around the internet. “Dot com” companies causing a stock market craze, until finally many of them crashed when they had to actually produce products and financial results. It is easy to get led astray, to get caught up in what again appears as a global push for acceptance of artificial intelligence. And as with any man made invention, it has its place.
But, why is this AI so fascinating to many?
With the internet and search engines available to everyone, has been a huge shift in critical thinking. Lack thereof, that is. While it is very convenient and very quick to ask google about anything, most don’t question whether the answers are correct, are the best, or even the truth. And with the addition of AI, this will get even further diluted. Because of powerful computing power, the ability to muddy the truth, to create deceptions will increase. We might even have a hard time in the near future to distinguish whether a book, such as history being taught to our children, was based on true facts, or AI generated with some political agenda.
So, again, why are people so excited about something that can deceive us?
Could it be the idea, even the promise that man can create life, the original lie from the garden? That man can become like God? “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” Genesis 3:4-5 ESV. Some people promoting the promise of AI state exactly this, that humans don’t need God. Is this the deeper story behind AI the push for Transhumanism? Psalms 87 reminds us that God is in control. In fact, He keeps a full and complete record of His creation. “The Lord records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah Psalm 87:6 ESV. He is the one who created, and breathes life into every human being. “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:7 ESV.
David acknowledged God’s sovereign power and authority to create new life, as he wrote “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:2-3 ESV. The word for “restore” here is really to bring to life, to give life. And we know this to be true, deep down, that only God can give life. The psalmist describes the response of those who recognize this “Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.”” Psalm 87:7 ESV. While technology can be very useful to us, and has absolutely improved our lives in many ways, we declare with the psalmist that our life source, our spring of life, our source of the living water, is God.