Oak Hill Theological College student, Ben Clube, contemplates whether Artificial Intelligence is ‘good news’
The past century has seen explosive interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Pop culture has perpetuated the hype with The Terminator in the 80s, The Matrix in the 90s, and a deluge since the millennium with I-robot, Ex Machina, Black Mirror, Westworld, etc.
But the fixation is not confined to fiction; scholars have been writing extensively on AI including Larry Page, Elon Musk, and Stephen Hawking. Max Tegmark pleads that this is ‘the most important conversation of our time’, with Bill Joy’s fearing that humans could be replaced by 2030.
AI is receiving extraordinary interest and investment from countries and companies all racing to improve machine intelligence.
Perhaps the most prominent proponent is Google’s Ray Kurzweil – a remarkably ambitious and accomplished academic with 20 honorary doctorates, three presidential awards, and a history of astonishingly accurate future predictions. His message can be summarised as such:
1. AI is already here. In existence today are machines that vastly outperform humans at specific intelligence tasks (e.g. memorisation and endurance) and we are increasingly dependent on them.
2. AI will get better. Future predictions are predicated on the empirical evidence of Moore’s Law, that machine technology predictably doubles every other year leading to exponential growth.
3. AI will take over. Once machines achieve human levels of intelligence they will necessarily race past it, becoming superior to humans in every conceivable way including physicality, intelligence, creativity, morality, emotions – even sexual and spiritual experiences. We are about to become pets to a far greater species.
4. We must merge with AI to survive. Humans are outdated machines – software trapped inside antique hardware. We must escape these old biological bodies by transferring our consciousness into new silicon bodies where we can upgrade ourselves infinitely and become impervious to death. We will live in paradise under the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent rule of AI. Kurzweil concludes: ‘By the end of the 21st century, there won’t be a clear difference between humans and robots’ and ‘there won’t be mortality.’ If he’s right, some people reading this article may never die.
Exciting opportunities
I want to propose that this is an incredibly important and exciting field for Christians to engage with. Not least to provide theological input into its claims and the ensuing ethical debates, but also because this mainstream infatuation – which doesn’t appear to be departing anytime soon – offers ripe evangelistic opportunities, as it strikes right at the heart of key existential questions like who are we, why are we here, what is death, how do we solve it, where are we headed?
I recently gave a talk in London suggesting that the AI story is a pirated copy of the Christian story. It begins with humans in the place of God breathing life into creations fashioned in our image. But it transpires that we live in a broken world with cursed bodies facing death. Kurzweil enters as modern prophet (a voice crying in the wilderness: ‘The kingdom of bots is near!’) preparing the way for these incarnated saviours – a hypos-tatic-union between metal and man. The gospel is offered freely through union with these saviours – broken people born again once the old self is removed and the new self put on. This ushers in an eternal age of blessing with upgraded bodies where every tear is wiped away under superintelligent rule. Sound familiar? Why do we love this story so much?
No compelling answers
The materialist worldview has no compelling answers for why we envision the world as broken from some imagined splendour, or why we perpetually paint death as a tragic intruder, or why we instinctively desire eternity, paradise and cosmic oversight. Conversely, the Christian worldview explains precisely why we keep re-imagining this same story of creation, fall, redemption, consummation – because it’s the story at the centre of reality. Whilst I believe Christians have permission to be deeply optimistic futurists regarding technology, clearly we do not believe that death is a technical issue – Kurzweil is falsely promising what Christ offers for free.
God has been warning humanity to stop putting its faith in metal creations to bless and save us since the dawn of history. Lamentably, far from being a modern fad, this seems to be one of our most consistent habits, a project indelibly etched on our hearts – to fashion gods from the ground. Meanwhile, we scoff at the almost unfathomable stupidity of the ancients for praying to lifeless statues, thinking: ‘How could they be so primitive?’
