Friends,

 My most basic assumption in life is that God is real.  Some think Artificial Intelligence, or “AI,” is poised to give humanity and God a run for their intellectual money. Let’s pay attention. See the column below.  Blessings,  Bob

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Spirituality Column #837

November 29, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Assuming God

By Bob Walters

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts [higher] than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:9, God speaking through the prophet.

Artificial Intelligence, or “AI” – man-made robots, computers, digital sensors, and technology of extreme physical, informational, and yes even intellectual capability – looms quite possibly in the near term as a threat to human existence or, at minimum, predicating a civilizational reboot that will subordinate humanity and culture as we know it.

Yeah I know … not something I have spent much time worrying about, either.

But, that, approximately, is the message of AI’s ascendancy one receives – I did – watching a montage of world’s-richest-man (and new Twitter owner) Elon Musk’s thoughts on the dismal downside of unbridled AI development.  Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceEx, and the less-known AI implant company Neuralink, is a compelling prophet of AI’s dangers.  He’s as thoroughly versed on the topic as anyone, anywhere.  AI is more advanced than I imagined.

We’ll not explain Musk’s concerns in detail here, but you can either Google “Elon Musk AI Warning” or click this link, Elon Musk's Horrifying New Warning about AI, and immerse your mind in some categorically stunning technology and philosophically wrenching prognostication. Robots and computers for decades have been able to outwork and out-calculate humans.

Overshadowed by the hue and cry of recent upheavals in politics, culture, wokeness, etc., AI has developed rapidly and powerfully yet quietly … almost off the grid.  Yet, here it is.

 Musk suggests we are on the cusp, globally, of ceding similar supremacy to computers not just in labor and information but control and creativity.  “We are headed toward a situation,” Musk said recently, “where AI is vastly smarter than humans. I think that time frame is less than five years from now.” Dancing or fighting robots? 24/7 Human surveillance? Moral judgment?

The evidence is already all around us, Musk points out.  His Tesla cars (and many others) can essentially drive themselves … though they have nowhere to go.  We are already near-cyborg in our daily lives as we endlessly utilize smartphones that we hold in our hands instead of – yet – implanted in our brains.  Neuralink conceives an implant to make our brains function more like computers, and AI to function more like our brains. That’s happening now.

Like I said, you can look it up.  AI is a real technology and concern, and has the potential to shift everything about human interaction, aspiration, and freedom.  It’s reminiscent of “Skynet” in Terminator movies: deadly technology that “became aware.”

Control by unfathomable information and synthetic logic lacking love, joy, and remorse?

I’m no AI expert but am certain we’ll be hearing much more about this soon.  From a Christian perspective, let’s not simply pooh-pooh AI technology and try to hide behind Jesus; that would be unwise.  Man is very clever, and Satan is strong.  The better tack is to strengthen the idea of who we – all of us – already are as humans: we are created and loved by God.

I assume the existence of God. And when you start with God and Isaiah 55:9, regardless of AI’s power, we know there already exists an intelligence beyond human comprehension.  Musk, evidently, does not “assume God.”  He assumes technology and the “God of Spinoza,” i.e., a sort of idol of the sum of human knowledge and experience.  I wrote about Musk last December (link 789 - The God of Spinoza).  He was surprised to learn people read the Bible.

When humans developed the atomic bomb and nuclear technology, many called it a physical power too close to God and man would use it to destroy himself.  AI could be a similar God-sized human development poised to out-think us and enslave us.

Give Musk his due, keep watch, and know God is higher than any of man’s endeavors.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notices that Musk never mentions God.