By Gustav Krös (INcontext Director)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a topic of discussion over the past few decades, but since the launch of ChatGPT late last year it has truly become a hot topic. For many people, discussions around AI have always been in the realm of the future, but with ChatGPT’s public accessibility, the future suddenly became reality. Governments are scrambling to understand the true threats that AI may hold, with Italy going so far as to block ChatGPT for nearly a month before making it accessible again at the end of April. If you are unfamiliar with ChatGPT please click on these links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT / https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
The Center for AI Safety has the following statement on its website that’s supported by a host of experts in the field of AI: Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk
At the same time there are experts who say that the concept of AI leading to human extinction is blowing the threats of AI out of proportion. Nonetheless, whether the threat of AI is as great as human extinction or not, everyone agrees that AI holds dangers to humankind if it is left unregulated. The threat does not lie in the technology itself, but in the danger it poses if people start using it in the wrong capacity
Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, humans have fallen into sin and have ended up using any invention intended for good to ultimately satisfy their own sinful nature. In the end it does not matter how well governments regulate the development and use of AI, it is going to be used to satisfy humans’ sinful nature along the way. Whether it is as simple as a student who cheats by using ChatGPT to write an essay, or whether it ends up being used to kill people, it is just another tool in sinful man’s hands.
We know, however, that behind Adam and Eve eating the fruit was the Devil portraying himself as a serpent, and he is the true enemy we face in this world, and so I would venture to say that AI will ultimately become the greatest weapon in the Devil’s hand.
From scripture we know that in the end there will not be another religion positioning itself against God, but that mankind will position itself against God. 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of the man of lawlessness and verse 4 states: He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. The book of Revelation also alludes to this in chapter 13 when it says in verse 18: Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man/is humanity’s number.
This will bring us full circle to where it all began in the Garden of Eden when the serpent told Eve in Genesis 3 verse 5: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Man’s desire to be like God, or to be God, will come to culmination when it positions itself above any religion and proclaims itself to be God (2 Thess. 2:4).
So where does AI fit into all of this? In order for mankind to position itself as God, it needs to diminish the spiritual realm entirely. This is what we are seeing in the West predominantly, where evolution is constantly positioned against creation, and at the same time we see humanism positioned against all forms of religion. Yet, we read in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 9 and 10: The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Also, in Revelation 13 verses 13 and 14 we read; And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth.
These signs cannot be performed in the sense of the miraculous that gives any indication that the spiritual realm is a reality because that would keep people in touch with the possibility that God exists. Everything is steering us in the direction that the Devil wants us to believe that God doesn’t exist, and that humans are the pinnacle of existence in the universe. This leads humans to pledge allegiance to whichever human is portraying the image they would like to become themselves, and ultimately put their trust in what these humans offer, instead of putting their trust in God.
In Scripture, we therefore see that as we approach the return of Christ there is going to be a man, positioning himself as proof that humankind is the pinnacle of existence in the universe, and that he is the pinnacle of humans, and therefore everyone needs to pledge allegiance to him and worship him. At the same time, he will prove this by performing signs and wonders. These signs and wonders should then be performed from a point of human ingenuity to prove itself as God, and this is where we see AI coming to the forefront, being the pinnacle of man’s ingenuity.
Experts in the field of AI are so afraid of the potential dangers it holds because they know they have now only opened the door to its possibilities, and nobody knows how quickly it will grow. The development of AI will thus continue to perform more signs and wonders that humans never before thought possible, but no matter how great the signs and wonders become, the truth will always be in its name; its artificial. For Christ’s elect will always know that true intelligence lies in worshipping the one and only true God.
I would like to end off with three points.
1.AI in itself is not evil; it depends on who’s hands it is in. We therefore also know that it can and will be used to achieve a lot of good as well.
2.Our enemy, the Devil’s tactics has never changed; he remains the deceiver. Just as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we read in the passages quoted above (2 Thess. 2:10 & Rev. 13:14) that he will continue to deceive people. Jesus himself warns us in Matthew 24:4-5, 11 & 24 to be on our guard against the deception that will be all around us. May we thus take heed to His word, and not live ignorant lives, saying ‘it will never happen to me’.
3. We know how this all ends. 2 Thess. 2 verse 8 says: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming. So, no matter what may come across our path, or how unpopular it may become to be a follower of Christ, may we remain focused, and draw our hope and joy from the One who has already overcome death and given us an eternal future to look forward to.
There is no copyright on this document but please acknowledge the source:
www.incontextinternational.org; gustav@incontextministries.org
