Even if you’ve tried to keep as far away from Artificial Intelligence (AI) as you possibly can, it’s inevitable that you’ll run across its impact. From advertisements that you listen to, to the material you read off a physical page, AI platforms are churning out an unimaginable about of material that we consume everyday, often without prior knowledge that it’s generated by AI. The most basic understanding of AI is that it’s superfast computing strength (that’s getting faster each day) combined with massive amounts of data gathered from everything that we interact with in our world. The advance of AI delivers enormous amounts of convenience, but it also comes with a constellation of cautions. New terms describing these cautions have either been repurposed or created in our vocabulary, such as “hallucinations“, “deep fake”, “data privacy”, “algorithmic bias”, or “sycophancy“. Improvements to AI generated videos, pictures, music and written material are progressively getting so good that they’re difficult to tell apart from the real thing, and if we’re alert to the smooth salesman at our door or the scam caller on our phone, we need to be even more alert to the artificial word of artificial intelligence swarming all around us.
But there is an additional layer to this problem. If our economy is to keep up at all with the pace of AI’s evolution around us, we need locations where these computers can run and where data is collected, crunched and distributed. These locations are enormous complexes that have been called “Data Centres”, and everywhere a data centre has been built, the negative environmental impact has been deeply felt. Electrical grids suffer enormous consumption loads; heat levels rise as centres require local sources of water to cool them down. So controversial is the construction of AI Data Centres that entire municipalities and cities have either slowed down or banned the building of these centres, while others have welcomed them with open arms and red carpets.
Everything about AI, from information to location, spells one thing that our world sorely needs – discernment. Discernment is the wisdom to tell between good and bad, true and untrue, right and wrong. Without discernment, we buy the wrong car, marry the wrong person, hire the wrong worker, live in the wrong neighbourhood. When it comes to AI, there isn’t a great deal of consensus that we can lean on. The Bible tells us that discernment comes from God’s Spirit dwelling in the believer. He Who sees beyond the facade, Who knows the future, and reads the heart of man like an open book gives to the Christian discernment for how to live life and make choices. His major instruments are God’s Word through which He speaks (John 14:26), prayer in which He confers with our spirit (Romans 8:16), and other believers through whom He gives His gifts (2 Corinthians 2:12). Next time you encounter a discussion about AI hallucination, deep fake, algorithmic bias, and sycophancy, reach for the Bible. Talk about Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Talk about the One in Whom we can truly trust. Remember, it is not AI which will one day rule the world. God will.
