The Artificially Intelligent(AI) Way
I used the Google search engine to quickly generate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) overview of scripture verses about meditation. It provided Joshua 1:8, Psalms 1:2, and Psalms 119:97. AI did not provide me with a description of its relevance to the present topic, but its God-given relevancy was the reason for my search. I required a piece of a puzzle that its system did not know was being built. I did not require of it every piece put together in whole puzzle form. I believe there is a difference.
When we are instructed to meditate on the word of God (King James Version Bible, 2016, Joshua 1:8), which I believe to be the Truth, we are told to do so day and night. Meditation on that which is true is ongoing, continuous, unending, and promises great results. Moreover, meditation on the word of God is the response of one who delights in and loves the law of the Lord (King James Version Bible, 2016, Psalms 1:2; 119:97). Who loves the Lord’s commands, seeks them out, and makes haste to obey them?! Who does so day and night?! We do. We do this because we know that knowledge is gained and understanding is obtained through this long ongoing process that promises not quick rewards but sure rewards. If this is how believers have been instructed to operate, if this is the training that we are under when we implement such practices, and if this is what we have learned to do through its continual use, then what is this new way of obtaining relevant information and producing results that pertain to every facet of life?
The biggest error with AI is not necessarily in the information it provides. Though if I were doing any topical study whereby I needed to search a matter out, in its overview it would be sure to give me the Christian, the Mormon, the Catholic, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’, and the Black Israelite perspective all wrapped up in one neat package for my development in Christ and in God. Yet my deepest concern is not the need for discernment when presented with or using AI-generated content, but rather, in how that information is obtained. It requires no meditation; its content formulates in a matter of seconds, and when applied, it produces results for individuals and companies who declare their success by the use of generative technology. Contrary to the truth, which requires meditation, AI content is formulated as quickly as a lie. We are on the verge of losing sight of what success is, to think that success no longer precedes from diligence. When it comes to creativity, our society has successfully shifted from manual to automatic. With the widespread use of commercial generative AI tools, many are initiating a perpetual cruise control. We have chosen ease of life, convenience, and to remove our feet from the pedal. For decades we have chosen efficiency, and commercial generative AI has capitalized on our preferences. It gives us what we have all our lives pursued, and in exchange we hand off our ability and even our need to be creative. Creativity is something that we possess by God. We serve and are the sons and daughters of a creative God; we are image-bearers of Him in whom we are also rightly related to, and therefore are to glorify Him in our development of creative works.
Generations lose the ability to do things manually, and are dumbfounded at the idea of having to build something from the ground up. We have gone from DIY kits to having it be done for us, through the use of generative technology. It can be said that AI has spent a lot of time listening to people so that we don’t have to. Companies can know what people want or need to hear based on what AI says, and there is no need for genuine connection. In fact, this artificial connection is producing profit for many. Organizations and individuals can lack sincerity and conviction in their advertising, and people will appreciate that about them all the more, and aspire to do even as they have done. All the while not knowing that, in persistently doing, companies and individuals are becoming something even more crafty than ever they were, professional deceivers. Mankind is being made artificial as AI becomes more intelligent. Like the flesh, it produces instant gratification and seeks to please itself; Contrary to love, AI seeks its own. We have spent decades being entertained by television portraying falsehood, and now AI is becoming even more entertained by us.
Biblically, this is what I see to be the potential negative impact that AI advertising has on individuals, brands, or companies who seek to use it as a marketing mainframe. That is, until the use of it causes a surge of individuals to seek sustainability from its non-organic synthetic nature. I cannot bring myself to speak of Artificial Intelligence as a girl who raves about her boyfriend who is a bit on the controlling side. Rather, I warn the saints not to remove old landmarks. If meditation on the word of God is not something you have known to do, then may today be the day that you set a landmark and don’t remove it. Ancient landmarks were set by Israel’s ancestors, also called “the fathers” in Scripture, where Israel was instructed not to remove what was set in place (King James Version Bible, 2016, Proverbs 22:28). Proverbs 23:10 offers additional counsel, “and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.” There is a difference between ancient landmarks and new ones. The present times can be said to be proof as to the retaining or removing of ancient landmarks. How knowledge is acquired, and understanding is gained, as indicated by the word of God, through meditation on His word, produces great reward. To utilize another way to acquire information other than to search a matter out is, in practice, the replacing of an ancient landmark. And the product that we replace it with is even more concerning. In time, it will produce many unforeseen undesirable results.
