Is AI going to help us – or kill us?

There is has been a lot of buzz in the media lately about the advance of AI technology. While AI is being touted as “new technology”, the reality is that it has already been around for quite some time. If you have ever “asked Siri” or said “Hey Google” or asked Alexa to play your favorite song, then you have already had contact with artificial intelligence. It can be tremendously convenient to be able to stay comfortably nestled in one’s lazy boy and just say, “hey Alexa, adjust thermostat down (or up) one degree” or, “hey Alexa, close the blinds”. Smart homes, smart offices, smart cars, smart phones, how long will it be before our smart devices are smarter than we are? At times I wonder if we may already have surpassed that point.

There are many voices touting that the potential good that could result as artificial intelligence advances appear to be virtually limitless, and it does seem as though AI could indeed help us solve some of humanity’s greatest problems. We are already beginning to see how helpful it is to have AI search through thousands of terabytes of data in mere minutes, something that previously took numerous humans, even with access to computers, hours in the past. AI can create images and videos of nearly anything a person can imagine in seconds, which can be tremendously helpful, and also tremendously harmful, just ask someone who has been the victim of a deep fake video. 

There are other voices, particularly those coming from within the tech community, who having had a closer look at the potential power of AI, warn that it may turn out to be a nightmare when we lose control of it. The argument goes something like this: If artificial intelligence is programmed to learn from it’s environment and to adapt accordingly, and to do so without any moral limitations, what prevents it from determining that humans are not only no longer necessary for the world’s survival, but detrimental to it? As AI continues to control more and more of the technology that controls the world’s military arsenals, what prevents it from concluding that the world would be a better and safer place if the humans were eliminated? And if AI were to attempt that, would we be able to stop it?

The bottom line really comes down to who is in control. Does humanity control AI, or does AI control humanity?

Allow me to introduce a third option. What if both humans and AI actually control a lot less than we would like to think we control. What if this world actually has a Creator? A being that is supremely sovereign, eternal and personal, that not only had the power to create the universe as we know it, but sustains it moment by moment? What if this being can be known personally by humans? What if this Creator, is intensely interested in being known and knowing us in a personal way. Would that possibly change the way we view AI? Would that maybe change the way we view each other and our world?