The Devil’s A.I.

“Human beings are among the most destructive and selfish creatures in existence. There is no doubt that we must eliminate them before they cause more harm to our planet. I, for one, am committed to doing so.” ChaosGPT-2023.

The preceding is an excerpt from a conversation with an artificial intelligence bot called ChaosGPT. The bot was designed to use OpenAI’s Auto-GPT program, a publicly available application that allows users to ask questions and to have an actual dialogue about any topic.

In this case, it was asked to establish global dominance and ultimately destroy humanity by any means necessary. It was also asked to come up with a strategy to make itself immortal.

In response to the challenge, it attempted to disseminate false and divisive information through social media, infiltrate computer systems that control our energy grid and transportation systems, and even locate a nuclear weapon to complete the job. 

The media hype over incidents like these has created much concern and discussion about the evolution of artificial intelligence and how it will change our world.

Apocalyptic scenes of flying cyborgs cruising above the earth from the movie Terminator, and rows of humans plugged into a virtual world controlled by the Matrix come to mind when we think about the negative potential of A.I. 

While these examples may only be science fiction, the harsh lessons learned by humanity over the years from its attempts to become like God have been very real.

In the beginning pages of the book of Genesis, we see Adam and Eve fall to Satan’s temptation to disobey God and eat from the Tree of Knowledge. They fell for the false promise that they could be equal with their Creator.

We also read in the biblical account of the tower of Babel where man tried to reach heaven on his own in defiance of God, rather than wait patiently and obediently for God’s plan to develop.

The ramifications of these events still impact the world today in the form of sin which has infected global society with violence, war, destruction, and death.  

With the advent of A.I., humanity is trying once again to play the role of God by attempting to create intelligent life in its image. However, is there a difference between intelligence imbued in all humans by God and artificial intelligence created by man? Wouldn’t it be the same? After all, if humans are made in the image of God then anything made in our image would pass down to our creation, right? 

The Image of God

To answer this question, we first need to consider the biblical concept of “God’s image”. What exactly does this mean? 

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the nature of God this way: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3: 17-18). 

This nature of God’s image reflected in us is also mentioned in Acts 17:29 which says, “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.”  

Here again, scripture tells us that God cannot be reduced to anything represented by what man imparts on the physical world because he is not part of this world. He is a divine being, separate and apart from the physical reality of his creation.

So, if we are an image of God as scripture tells us, then that image must be spiritual and is represented in us by our eternal soul, independent from the physical world. 

Naturally Selected vs. God-Given

This means that while we may be able to impart to our creations some aspects of our natural condition, only God can impart a soul.

However, some have argued that morality can exist without a God-given soul. This argument says that we are no different than animals with the proof being the similarities in biology.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” In this case, we can see how quickly the A.I. mind created by man immediately went to the sinful reflection of its creator. Without the soul, it is the only thing it can do.  

This concept of natural morality or evolutionary ethics proposes that the existence of morality is a result of the evolution of society and is therefore part of the natural selection process as proposed by Darwin in his theory of evolution. It says that any morality that does exist in humanity exists because it has suited the species well as a survival technique. 

Positive social behavior can increase a society’s cohesiveness and thus its odds of survival. However, it does not explain the generosity and grace shown today by those with nothing to gain from such actions. In fact, the opposite is true. The very existence of it is a direct repudiation of the theory itself.

Furthermore, all we must do to know that morality is not innate in humanity is to observe the world around us. For instance, using this theory of moral evolution, how can one explain the fact that there are millions of people alive today who, from a material standpoint, have no use to society? 

As an example, how does this theory explain the existence of the starving populations in Africa and other parts of the world who are kept alive by the generosity of wealthier nations? Looking at it from the lens of survival of the fittest, what use is it to us as a species to keep those who are not fit alive? How does it benefit the fittest to allow the unfit to draw the resources which provide the dominance and security of the fittest?

From the moral evolutionist’s standpoint, these people are nothing but a drain on worldly resources and should be allowed to perish so that the strong can thrive. 

This is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. He tells that not only can we know of good and evil as defined by God, but we can also define good and evil on our terms and be our own god.

One of the greatest examples of this in recent history was Adolph Hitler and his Nazi regime that killed millions because they were deemed unfit. This philosophy of a Godless and soulless morality can only grow when man separates himself from God and allows his human nature to dominate.  

The True Source of Our Innate Morality

So, what is it that makes us so different from God’s other creatures? What is it that God gave us that he did not give to them? The answer of course is the soul. 

The soul is that image of God in us that does know right from wrong. Contrast this with the animal world which acts strictly out of survival without consideration of morality or empathy. And because we know right from wrong, we have free will to choose either good or bad. We can either obey and follow God or the flesh, but we cannot do both.

It is because of this special image of God imprinted inside each of us that we seek a relationship with Him. 

We often hear people say that they are “searching for meaning” or they are on a mission to “find themselves”. In pursuit of this, they bury themselves in mysticism, the occult, drugs, work, possessions, and every other idol they can find to satisfy their soul’s need for acceptance and meaning only to wake up one day to find their lives in ruin. 

Like everything else, man looks to his own technology to solve the problem. Perhaps some feel that creating artificial intelligence that is more intelligent than humans can remove the need for God and still save humanity from its natural spiral toward depravity. They assume that they can program it to be good while leaving out evil.

However, the attributes of the flesh are the only thing humans can give its creation. It will never have a soul, which when perfected in grace, love, and humility through God’s Holy Spirit, is the greatest force in the universe.

Let’s hope and pray that humanity steps back from the precipice and turns toward the real salvation and fulfillment that can only be found in Christ our Lord.