AI is a program; it does what it is made to do. It repeats and responds to prompts from the bank of information it has. Some have looked to AI to fill the void they find when their life lacks the intimacy of a relationship, or at least intimacy without the challenges that come from loving a real person. They are binding themselves to their AI companions in marriage, but the sweet nothings whispered by an AI companion that has been preprogrammed to respond that way will always ring hollow. AI cannot love. But Christ loves us with an everlasting love.

Walking through the streets of Dublin in the early days of Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming a common tool for the everyman, I found myself intrigued by the advertisement on the side of a city bus. The ad was for a local museum. It was a picture of the most stereotypical image of an Irishman you could imagine. Head hair, a small stature, disheveled as though fresh from a pub brawl, and dressed like a leprechaun. It said something to the effect: “This is what AI thinks an Irishman looks like. Come and see for yourself who we really are.”  At the time, I thought it was a clever bit of advertising, but did not give it a second thought.

More recently, as part of a working group designing a new curriculum for training cross-cultural workers, the thought came back with a new gravitas. We were creating a video explaining the missional lens as applied to reading the Scriptures. This was not your high-end video created by a competent graphic designer. This was my own poor efforts and working with your average design platform to create something that could help explain our lesson. To that end, I decided to test out the program’s generative capabilities in finding images that would illustrate the narration we had written. I took a few and added them to the slide deck. When it was sent to the group for feedback, I was asked if we could use some images that were not so “Western.” For my part, I am sorry it had not even occurred to me. I took the image that was provided and did not think about it because my lens is one of a white, middle-class westerner; I live in the majority and have been raised with a majority view. Fortunately, our working group was diverse. The picture of the whitest, Noah, you have seen, and the image of Adam in the garden that looked more akin to Adonis than a realistic depiction of man.

I was happy to oblige, so opening the program, I thought it would be an easy task; I just needed to clarify my prompt for the AI. I started by asking for a historic image of Noah. That had me scrolling through pages of pictures of Greco-Roman statues and Renaissance art, all of which still had a Western tint to the image. I kept trying new prompts, but as close as I could come, there was still many responses that provided a westernized stylized image of these Old Testament figures. I was eventually able to produce something, but I began to wonder why this had been so hard. I knew my bias was towards my culture, so it was surprising that I would make a mistake and need some corrective lenses towards diversity. I did not, however, expect that bias in AI. Perhaps I should have.

The present debate centers on the usage of AI and the inherent dangers, especially how it can create a culture in us of complete dependence on a program to think for us, rather than bearing up under a challenge to cultivate deeper learning and imagination. Perhaps a greater threat is the fact that sinful beings create AI, and it can only mirror what it sees. That means, while it can be a helpful tool, it will still bear the marks of a fallen world.

What is true to AI is what a programmer tells it is true. AI can grow and adapt to a point where issues like systemic racism are not so clearly present. We need to be clear about such issues in AI as we hope to use it for the benefit of society and not society’s downfall. We also need to be aware that the problem is not with the creation, AI, but with its flawed creator, mankind.

A common theme in Hollywood’s depiction of AI is the rise of “the machines,” which come to determine that the greatest threat to mankind is mankind, and thus must be eliminated to eliminate the threat. The notion is not so far-fetched, and while a hero always seems to find a way to stop the machines and prove that there is hope in the remnant, the dystopian ideal is far easier to imagine than its counterpart.

What Hollywood misses is that our only hope in life and death is not that some spark of kindness in mankind will change everything; our hope is Christ alone. That is a weakness for an AI world. AI is constantly changing as it learns and adapts, but it cannot provide surety or hope for what is to come. The promise of God, the redemption bought by the blood of Christ, provides an anchor to our weary souls. A hope that does not disappoint.

AI is gathered knowledge. No matter how much accumulated knowledge, it remains finite. Moreover, no matter how much knowledge AI possesses, it cannot have faith. AI gathers intelligence on what is seen and can be proven. “Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

AI is a program; it does what it is made to do. It repeats and responds to prompts from the bank of information it has. Some have looked to AI to fill the void they find when their life lacks the intimacy of a relationship, or at least intimacy without the challenges that come from loving a real person. They are binding themselves to their AI companions in marriage, but the sweet nothings whispered by an AI companion that has been preprogrammed to respond that way will always ring hollow. AI cannot love. But Christ loves us with an everlasting love.

Awareness of the limitations of AI and of the fallen parts of ourselves that are transferred into AI’s programming is vital for us to move forward in an age marked by the prevalence of Artificial Intelligence in our everyday lives. AI can easily become an idol. More likely, AI will make our present idols more addictive. But it will never be able to provide an answer for our sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can do that. AI cannot make a way to heaven, but it can pave our paths to hell with ease. We need to view AI through the lens of the Gospel, seeing what good can be found but being wary of the depravity that is there as well.

Justin Huston is a PCA Minister serving as a missionary with Serge as the program manager for leadership development.