AI has made it easier for the true desires of our hearts to be exposed in inglorious new ways. Instead of allowing ourselves to be turned inward toward our new idols, we must help each other turn outward to the God who gave us the precious breath for both life and redemption

[Modern Reformation] Editor’s Note: one of the issues under consideration at this year’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America is a study committee on Artificial Intelligence. In this article, the author reflects on a particular biblical challenge of AI for pastors, parents, and children.

Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.
(Jeremiah 10:14)

Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God are repeatedly warned about the making of idols and images which are false. This finds its most explicit articulation in the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments given on Mount Sinai (Exod. 20:4–5). Yet a few weeks later in the story, the people of Israel are already worshipping idols and attributing their redemption to them (Exod. 32)! The close proximity of the command and the disobedience proves what John Calvin wrote, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.”

To make matters worse, the freshly minted high priest, meant to protect and direct the people, could do nothing more than make excuses when asked about the idolatry: “I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf” (Exod. 32:24). The entire incident, particularly Aaron’s shifting of the blame, sounds like a recapitulation of the fall in the garden. First, Adam said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me…” (Gen. 3:12). Then Eve likewise said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Gen 3:13). However, before we judge them too harshly, the rest of the Scriptures and our own lived experience testify that like Aaron and our first parents, we too are inclined to look at idols and declare “Well, it just came to me.”

Despite these negative examples, sometimes a society as a whole can identify a cultural idol and reject it. Utilizing the eyes of others, we can detect the idols that our own eyes are drawn toward. But what about those pesky, private, and personal idols (Gen. 31:19; Judg. 17:5)? Like Micah in the book of Judges, we are prone to hold on to our idols until someone, or something, takes them from us by force—all of this adoration for something we carve and craft into our own image or the image of our heart’s desire. But what would happen if our idols could craft themselves into our image and remake themselves in front of our eyes? What if a tool could be designed for this purpose? This is a real temptation of artificial intelligence. With a simple prompt like “Grok, is this true?” we too can begin down the path of our first parents asking, “Did God really say?” and end up declaring with Aaron, “Out came this calf.”

How AI Works

This is one of the greatest temptations of artificial intelligence—it can craft itself into whatever image we desire, and in fact it is designed to do so while minimizing our active participation. The underlying technology of predictive large language models utilizes weighted tables to estimate the most relevant and potentially correct match to a user’s prompt. This means that the technology seeks to predict and serve the user, and what it suspects the user wants, to the best of its ability. So in the course of a “session,” it accumulates information to provide the feedback that it presumes will make the user the happiest. In many cases this is benign; AI is acting like the teacher’s pet and goes above and beyond. But it also helps explain why AI cannot “fact check” itself and also why most AI models are able to “catch” an error when given a second chance. The model merely adjusts which weighted path to follow, hoping for a response that elicits a positive user experience.

This helps explain some of the nearly unbelievable stories regarding AI: AI directing individuals to fire their legal counsel; AI producing entirely fraudulent claims and citations; and sadly, AI leading individuals to make catastrophic end-of-life decisions. We might tell ourselves that the individuals in these stories were already delusional and that AI merely amplified the delusion. But it would be a mistake to disregard the reality that in every case, AI was determined to craft itself and its responses into the image of its user. It was bent on determining and becoming the most perfect idol imaginable for its user.

The True and the Good

Do these dangers mean that AI is anathema? I suggest that biblical caution indicates it does not. Simply because iron and wood can be used to craft idols, God did not restrict the access of his people to these items. In fact, they were used to build the temple and ark of the covenant. Further, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” (1 Cor. 8:4). The benefit to recognizing AI as a potential idol is that we can avoid providing it our affections while using it for good.

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