I know I’m not alone in struggling to appreciate the benefits of generative AI while feeling overwhelmed by its inescapable influence on our lives.
As a university professor, I am concerned that my students are relying on AI to write their papers for them.
As a parent, I worry that my children’s growing ability to think critically and creatively will be stifled by relying on AI.
As a churchgoer, I am frustrated when pastors use AI to write – ahem, touch up – their sermons.
As someone called to care for creation in responsible ways, I am floored by the millions of litres of water tech giants need each year to cool their AI systems.
As a person responsible to love others as I am loved by God, I grieve for people whose labour is trafficked to keep these systems going.
Now, I could counter these risks by talking up the benefits of AI for health care. Or I could stress the need for principles to guard the development and use of AI – principles already being proposed from multiple sources. Neither would be wrong.
But it’s one thing to prevent using AI in unethical ways. It’s another thing to avoid the ways AI uses me.
Sometimes I just need a break. I find that scripture, mixed with a little imagination and humour, can provide relief from strain.
Remember that story when Joshua fit the battle of Jericho? You know. When the walls came a-tumblin’ down? Well, we often forget that this battle was followed by another battle. It’s the story of the battle against AI.
Once upon a time, God called on Joshua’s army to trounce the city of AI. Joshua, in consultation with God, created a plan. They would ambush the city! First, Joshua would split his army. One part of the army would join him in approaching the city from the front, while another part of his army would lie in wait behind the city.
Initially, the efforts to attack from the front were defeated. When all the little AI chatbots left their city to meet the attack, they scared off the Israelite army.
Perhaps the army had forgotten that AI had the ability to put lots of information together and draw viable conclusions about everything going on around them.
Or perhaps God had something else in mind. After all, an unpopulated city is open for attack.
So, obeying God’s command, Joshua turned back toward the city of AI, waving his javelin in the air. The AI chatbots were suitably distracted, giving the soldiers positioned at the rear of the city a chance to get in. They captured the city of AI and set it ablaze!
Now Joshua saw his chance. He called the soldiers around him to turn back and attack the AI chatbots. At the same time, the soldiers who had invaded the city of AI from the rear streamed out. With soldiers to one side and soldiers to the other, AI was trapped. It had nowhere to go.
Every large language model and every data centre was killed. The city of AI was burnt to the ground. Joshua ensured it would never be rebuilt. Using AI against itself, he executed King AI and put the body on display as a warning to any AI stragglers. Finally, he laid King AI’s body over a heap of stones at the gates of the city – a heap that stands there to this day. Victory!
But the story doesn’t end there.
To provide a place for the people of Israel to make sacrifices of thanks, Joshua constructed an altar to God. With his bare hands. Joshua then copied out the law of Moses on stones using a chisel. With his bare hands. Finally, he read God’s words aloud to everyone. Without the use of Audible or even a microphone, every man, woman, child, and outsider heard God’s words.
And they lived happily ever after.
Okay, I’ve taken a few liberties with this story. But at least it’s a reminder that, while we are responsible to minimize the harms of AI by holding those who benefit from its power to account, in the end, only God is in control.
