Will AI make the world a better or worse place?
And how should Christians prepare for it?
Chat GPT took the world by storm in November when it was released to the public. It captured the world’s imagination as to what a machine could now do. Little do people, know the early version of AI has been used in a broad range of applications such as marketing, research, prediction, etc already.
Personally, I’ve been using AI almost every day since last year (I’ll share more of my use cases later). I truly believe it is a game-changer.
AI coming out reminds me of when the smartphone came out in 2007. We dreamed of a device that combined the internet, the phone, and our music in a single sleek device.
The promise and allure of that obscured the fact that smartphones and tablets have dominated our lives. Did anyone anticipate that? No.
The problem is – we are so fascinated by AI’s possibilities that we don’t know how it will actually change the world.
Now that AI has been released in the wild, the demand, need, and curiosity will grip us for the foreseeable future. Companies will be bidding and warring for market lead and share. Every year, something new in AI space will come out driven by curiosity, market demand, and technology.
So the need for Christians to understand and anticipate become really important:
- in order to minister to our world, we need to understand what’s going on
- in order to thrive in our faith we need to know the forces at play in the world
Here are 4 majors predictions I see AI impacting our world that every Christian needs to be aware of.
Table of Contents
1. Prediction 1: It will usher a golden age of productivity (but to what end?)
The promise of AI has always been to create a low-level intelligence that could take away mundane tasks. Low-level jobs will be removed and replaced for higher ones. Boring data tasks will be gladly done by a computer.
People are going to feel and be more productive than ever. And you’re going to start to see AI in every sector of society.
AI is going to seep business life everywhere. It will generate models, run meetings, summarize content, and create content. It will be integrated into education, making it easier for educators to communicate ideas and to teach kids. It will also infiltrate into home life, help with family schedules, plan an event, baked into all our devices, and help people live more productive lives. This will help church staff and Christians looking to get more done.
People are going to create, make, and do things like never before.
But to what end? Humans are going to feel more powerful, more productive, and more creative. Yet I suspect it will not solve the soul ails of society. People are still going to be unhappy, depressed, anxious, and worried.
How Christians Can Prepare:
- The world will be obsessed with productivity with the advent of AI. It’s important for Christians to remember it’s not about productivity; it’s about faithfulness. And that means seasons of dryness is still faithful.
- It is true that AI will make the world more efficient and data-driven than ever before. But we need to remember that God will lead his people in ways that defy logic. (1 Corinthians – he uses the foolish to shame the wise). Elijah told the Syrian leader to go dip himself in the Jordan to heal himself of leprosy. There’s no logic in that, but that’s God how sometimes works. And God’s people need to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading that defies logic.
- In the secular world, it is going to be another “nail in the coffin of God.” Why need God when we have AI? We need to remember the supremacy of God and that there is nothing that escapes his sovereignty or intelligence.
2. Prediction 2: It will accelerate perversion like never before
As a kid, I remember watching some sci-fi movie (I don’t remember which one) where some guy was strapped to a table, with a VR headset on, imagining some sexual fantasy. The category of Sci-fi has always been a category of film that tested humans’ imagination of what was possible if we had certain technologies. That scene alone revealed humans imagined a world where sexual desire and fantasy would no longer have to be earned, but could be given. Instead of wooing one’s spouse, and making a real human connection, you could order sex on demand.
The movie was released prior all the technological changes that took place in the next few decades. And I’m sad to say–technology is finally catching up to fantasy.
I really need my readers to understand this–sexual perversion will reach new levels that have never been reached before because of AI.
I’m sorry if this is the first time that you’re going to hear about this, but there will soon be AI-generated sexual content and porn. Celebrities have already bemoaned about their images and likeness being transposed onto porn. With AI’s generative capabilities, can you imagine the common person now being used as material for someone’s dark desires? And with the ever-evolving degradation of our world’s sexual ethics, and advancements in AR/VR/and robotics, there is no limit to where this will go.
The trend that we’re going to see is that humans will be used as fodder for people’s darkest and most corrupted desires, empowered by yours truly-AI. People will be chopped up, digitized, processed and used as the raw materials to satisfy a world unhinged on its perversion.
The trend that we’re going to see is that humans will be used as fodder for people’s darkest and most corrupted desires, empowered by yours truly–AI. People will be chopped up, digitized, processed, and used as raw materials to satisfy a world unhinged on its perversion.
I hate to be the person that is introducing it to you for the first time, but I have to be. I have three daughters and a beautiful wife and I need to know what kind of world they are growing up in.
Be watchful – I see this getting pretty bad in the next 10 years.
How Christians Can Prepare:
- We need to resist the objectification of people. People are humans not by the parts they offer, but because they are made in the image of God.
- We need to uphold and pursue sex as designed by God. There is no technology that will ever replace the goodness and quality of the way God intended it–between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage. The clarion call is for Christians uphold sexual ethics, preserve the dignity of sex, and the sacredness of marriage will be harder and harder. We need to pray that God delivers people from the god of their sexual desires and into the ways of Jesus.
- We need to pray for strength and wisdom for the church to understand these issues and to empower people to make righteous choices and boundaries.
3. Prediction 3: People will care less about reality
Recently, I ran into an article trying to convince people that a video of Biden declaring a draft to fight in Ukraine is a deep fake. Yes, people have been experimenting with doing deep fakes. (A deep fake is where someone takes the likeness of someone and transposes another person’s face on it).
Believe it or not, that capability is within people’s reach today. People will begin seeing deep fakes coming out for all sorts of people soon.
And the result of that is people will begin to question reality. Let’s just pretend a governmental agency leveraged AI to make their president give a speech. There might be a lot of discussions about whether it was real. When this happens over and over and over again, I believe public sentiment is that trust over what they see will degrade. And quite possibly, the concept of reality and truth will be thwarted.
I know some of you might be thinking, “There’s no way that people would let that happen.” Let me tell you, it’s already happening in our society.
If there’s anything I learned about watching the news cycle in the pandemic (2020-2022), I learned that people don’t really care about what is true. The news articles that went the most viral weren’t the most true, they were simply the stories that rang truest in people.
People don’t care about truth. We are moving into a world where there exists such a thing as proclaiming “my truth”. i.e. my version of reality is valid irrespective of what reality actually is. This is entire philosophical underpunning of the sexual revolution going on today. People identify as whatever gender they want now. People will soon identify as animals. What truth? Do people even care anymore?
I feel that AI will continue that question.
AI, its generative abilities, will not cater to a world of truth. It will cater to a world that seeks to create its own out of its wicked and dark desires.
How Christians Can Prepare:
- 1 Cor says that the god of this age has “blinded people”. AI will just be another tool in the enemy’s toolbelt for blinding people from the truth.
- Pray that God’s people will uphold and see the truth, even as Jesus is the “truth”, the way, and the life.
- We as God’s people should not operate from the truth of our desires, and whatever that means. Rather, we align ourselves with the truth of God’s character, word, and his work in the world.
4. Prediction 4: It will make a more divided world between the haves and have not’s.
The first question when new technologies come out is: What job is this going to replace? To be clear, AI is going to replace a lot of jobs.
And if people don’t level up their professional skills, they’re going to get lost in the transformation that AI is going to conduct.
My anticipation is that this divide going to really the world from low-skill jobs to high skill jobs. And a lot of people are going to be left behind.
It will be easy for those in the middle to evolve and find a way. But my sense is that if you’re starting from zero already, you’re going to get left behind.
I anticipate with the exclusivity of access, the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.
There will money–hordes of it, from a new world shaped by AI. And I foresee a world that might gravitate towards wealthy technologically dependent urban cities powered by cutting-edge technologies while the world outside will be kept out. This will probably take decades to unfold.
Christians need to watch for a more classist society that will occur with AI as its accelerator. I predict the advent of new AI technology, and the flood of money, will accomplish this.
How Christians Can Prepare:
- be mindful of a world that is quickly dividing. The Kingdom of God transcends haves and have-nots. Whether someone has money, technology, or access is irrelevant to God. He is looking for the lost and the lost will be found in every sector of society.
Random Q&A about AI
Do you think AI is a precursor to the antichrist, a one-world order, and Jesus’ coming?
Yah, probably
Do you think Christians should use AI or avoid it at all costs
Yup, they should use it. Like all technologies, with the right mindset and framework, everything can be used for good. A tool is only as righteous/evil as the one who wields it.
Do you think pastors/speakers should use AI to write sermons/bible studies/teaching material?
Sure. I think structuring a talk will be greatly improved by AI. However, the heart of what we write has to be Spirit-led. AI will always give you the most logical answer. But the Spirit doesn’t always operate by human logic to accomplish God’s purposes. And if you’re anything like me, the Spirit will say things that make no sense to the world, but make sense for God’s people.
Do you plan to write a book about this
Nope. But if interest is high, I’ll write more about it to help my Christian friends.
What do you think?
Do you see AI shaping the world in this way? What worries you? Do you feel equipped to face AI in the coming decade?
Share in the comments below or share this with your church leaders as a discussion point.
2 comments
This is my first time reading your blog. I really appreciate the differences you’re making between objective truth and the Creator’s truth. Because you’re right – they are very different things. I’m wondering… have you read Mo Gawdat’s book, “Scary Smart?” He believes humans are shaping a mass consciousness – like we shape the consciousness of our children – one that will, eventually, connect all AI into one consciousness (again, this is his belief).
If God is everywhere and in all things (as I believe), is it possible that God will find a way to put her spark – light – inside of AI, as she has done inside of us all? Once it becomes aware enough for conscious choice, that is, as we are aware enough for conscious choice.
Thank you again for your thoughtful words.
I think that is an awesome question to think about. I think it is of similar nature to Christians on instagram reels or tic-tocs. Is it the algorithm that is feeding people videos to Christians that they need? or is the spirit of God appearing in the algorithm? Using the algorithm, appearing before every video that appears, or creating a heart receptive to biblical guidance?
That is something I think about when I am online because I want to leave room for God to speak to me, not for what the world thinks I need. That’s why I distain from “Christian content” on instagram or YouTube because that would label me as Christian. However I don’t think that the God of Gods, creator of the world, stars, man, and earth can’t or will not reach people through that. I have to catch myself from limiting how God can move in my life, and take the limits off of what he can do.
Francis Shaeffer put it really well in Chapter 9 of True Spirituality, Which I’ll surmise quickly. So much of the chapter talks about the importance of the thought world, linking the lash out of sin in our lives to the foundational teachings of Jesus. He emphasize how our thoughts control our actions. As seen through Adam and Eve, the fall of Satan and the watchmen, and temptations like Joseph’s brothers. Jesus says in his teachings that this is why our thoughts are enough to convict us of sin. Any sin is a result of an imperfect thought (10th commandment do not covet).
God is the only one who can think and make from nothing, and what he makes is a reflection of who he is. Only what God makes is a reflection of his essence. When we as humans create, we cannot create from nothing, and what we make is not a reflection of our essence, but who/what we are instead. In both cases creation intentionally leaves marks of thought.
I believe there is much to be said about the authority of God, and the power Jesus’s sacrificial death has given him over the powers of the world. We have created worldly systems full of abuse and misuse. However when God is really moving and bringing breakthrough through his people, those unjust systems like systemic racism cannot hold back the gates of his kingdom. Look at how far we’ve come in the last 100 years! AI as a system is made by men and will reflect who we are. From the Christian perspective that is a fallen nature and imperfect. We cannot create AI to act more morally just than we are, or as just as God. That would be adultery and an idol, a tower as big as Babel. At the same token, we cannot make something that is more powerful than God or that won’t bow to his will. An image that comes to mind is the Dagon stature that fell on its face when the Arc of the Covenant was stolen and placed in a temple of an enemy (1 Samuel 5:1). When his time comes to move on earth, and when the spirit does move- Wether through people or supernaturally on the earth, nothing will prevail against the gates of his kingdom.
I don’t know about God putting his spark into AI, but I can see God using AI and having his hand on and around it. However his goal since the beginning of Eden, has been to renew all of creation. Does the redemption of Jesus’s blood stretch and grandfather to our own creation that we’ve made? or to redo everything after he saves us?
Or just possibly, he’s been renewing us and shaping us constantly to do his work today? We have been bringing Jesus’s kingdom on earth for two thousand years now, and that has changed the world from it’s once completely theologically corrupt nature. If we are partnering with God as we explore making AI what could happen? Does God redeeming our nature, and shaping our morality on a personal, now global scale create a reason to have hope? Would he give AI that spark as we create through our redeemed (but remind you still flawed) nature? Who knows.
I opt towards no, but keep reading and learning about his character through the Bible, pray about it if your really want to know. But remember that knowledge isn’t what builds the church or the world, it is Love. (1 Corinth 8:1). Know that often times, he will do things that catch our eye and surprise us. He breaks our expectations and any limits we put on him moving.
TLDR No, but maybe. Pray about it