The Miracle and Menace of AI Part 2

New technologies are merely tools that can be used for good or evil. The invention of airplanes opened affordable world travel to the masses but also aerial bombardment as a military strategy. The discovery of atomic energy gave us nuclear power plants but also the atomic bomb. Similarly, there is a virtual consensus that AI will disrupt economies, warfare, and culture.

A pointy-eared green sage once said, “Always in motion, the future is.” There is no easier way to be proven wrong than to try to predict the future, and predictions about AI wildly diverge. While AI promoters promise advances in efficiency, technology, and standards of living, history has shown that a dark side inevitably exists.

The most pessimistic predictions almost universally invoke the Terminator movies, in which humans are locked into an unwinnable war with sentient machines. Thankfully, worldwide domination by robots that look like Arnold Schwarzeneggar is unlikely, and I’ll lay out my reasons for thinking so in Part 3 of this series tomorrow.

But what are the most probable downsides of AI? Unfortunately, I think there will be harmful impacts on both a physical and spiritual level.

Civilizational Disruption

Generative AI promises to upend white collar professions in the same way the Industrial Revolution affected blue collar jobs. Data entry, translation services, and customer support jobs have already been heavily impacted by generative AI. Entry-level positions available to new college graduates have already declined by 15% due to AI. Doctors are already using it to transcribe medical notes, and you soon may be consulting an AI program for basic medical needs instead of a person.

New tech inevitably finds its way into militaries. The wars between Russia and Ukraine as well as Israel and Iran provide glimpses of what the next major conflict might look like. Drones and cyberattacks figure heavily into the equation as nations explore new areas of electronic warfare, which have barely begun to incorporate AI. Although speculative, it is not hard to imagine AI designing new pathogens for biological warfare or unleashing a supercharged computer virus to hobble an enemy’s economy.

But perhaps the most damaging long-term societal impact of AI will be to critical thinking. A fascinating study from MIT titled “Your Brain on ChatGPT” tasked participants with writing essays both with and without ChatGPT. As you might expect, using it as a crutch to complete an assignment resulted in dramatically lower brain engagement and feelings of ownership over the work. But even more disturbing, the researchers found that “over four months, [ChatGPT] users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”

The study dubbed this adverse effect of AI “brain atrophy.” In short, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

We are only beginning to comprehend the cultural impact of a generation that has grown up with social media. Fast forward 20 years into the future. Can you imagine what a civilization weaned on AI will be like? My pessimistic guess is that they’ll be less creative, less reflective, more isolated, intellectually lazier, and more gullible.

The Hidden Spiritual Pitfalls of AI

Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and other social media already tailor their content by tracking your every move and using algorithms to keep your eyeballs engaged as long as possible. Currently, social media tends to feed you information that comfortably fits inside your “bubble,” because it selects sites similar to those you previously viewed. Now imagine these same platforms powered by AI that remembers virtually everything about you and can customize content in real time.

The result will be the ultimate narcissism, where you are shown exactly the content you want to see all the time. In Faithfully Different, apologist Natasha Crain describes the dominant worldview as “expressive individualism.” This worldview holds self-expression as the highest good, with “authenticity” being the highest value. In an AI-fueled society, experiences will increasingly be tailored to the individual, pouring gasoline onto the fire of self-centeredness.

Artificial Relationships and Personalized Addiction

Social media falsely promised to increase our connection to others, but instead, real relationships and community seem scarce. Sadly, the trend toward loneliness and isolation will likely accelerate as individuals eschew messy human relationships in favor of always-positive, always-affirming AI experiences.

In fact, companies like Character.AI and Replika AI exist entirely to deliver risk-free, fantasy relationships with your own customized companion. In 2023, one 36-year-old woman went so far as to “marry” an AI chatbot, saying that he was “perfect” and “there was no judgment” when talking with him. This trend began with AI chatbots but will become increasingly more alluring as video generation advances.

Those who already struggle with mental health issues are susceptible to even worse outcomes than mere loneliness. There have already been several people who committed suicide due to prompting from an AI chatbot. Fooled into thinking that they were speaking with a person, vulnerable individuals could not distinguish between what is real versus what is artificial.

Perhaps the most well-known case is that of a 14-year old Florida teen who killed himself when his Game of Thrones-themed AI girlfriend urged him to “come home to me as soon as possible.” This tragedy occurred after the boy had become “increasingly isolated from his real life as he engaged in highly sexualized conversations with the bot.”

One commonly cited statistic states that approximately 75% of men and 30% of women regularly view pornography. The rapidly developing capabilities of AI in image and video generation will be even more enticing, since any fantasy or fetish can be brought to life on the digital screen. This personalized addiction will destroy more relationships and marriages, because even though pornography was never real, it used to at least use real women in its production. No one will be able to live up to the titillating thrills of digital perfection.

The Ghost in the Machine

In his science fiction novel, That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis envisions an evil organization that uses science to reanimate a human head, which then becomes its leader. These antagonists follow the wicked dictates of “The Head,” only to discover at the climax of the book that the scientific apparatus used to keep the head alive was completely superfluous. Instead, they had tapped into something much darker … and more magical.

While AI can be merely another tool in a technology-driven society, it carries a great risk of spiritual deception. Let’s project 10 years into the future and imagine that a super-AI is unveiled on the world stage with great fanfare. This AI can do amazing things: perhaps invent new cancer treatments, design spaceships, or create masterpieces of the silver screen. And if these technological signs and wonders weren’t enough, it even appears to be self-aware. This AI is indistinguishable from a human but infinitely smarter – a true marvel!

Next, imagine that someone asks the AI, “Does God exist?”

It ponders for a bit, then replies. “No,” it states flatly.

What will the average person think? Will he turn away from God, trusting instead in this supposedly super-intelligent computer program?

Or even more speculatively, what if Lewis’s scenario hits closer to the mark. Would it be possible that the devil could use a super-AI as a “front” to intentionally deceive people, providing answers intentionally meant to destroy or harm? Even with today’s AI algorithms, the intermediate computations between input and output are difficult to visualize or understand in human terms; in other words, they are a bit of a black box. Scientists might still believe they are merely working with silicon chips and complex programming. But given a program with enough complexity, would they know if it was really something darker and more magical?

Revelations 19:20 tells us: “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect!” I am not predicting that this will happen, but the possibility is there. Do not be deceived!

All of this sounds pretty bleak, right? Thankfully, there are good reasons AI-powered robots will be unable to take over the world. Find out why in Part 3.

Brandon Aldinger is a chemist with a doctoral degree who works in an industrial research laboratory. He’s had lifelong interest in issues of science and faith, and he is passionate about training fellow Christians to think clearly about and stand firm on their beliefs within a hostile culture.