Developing Darren

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I’ve been thinking a lot about AI and algorithms lately; how AI is a ‘cognitive prosthetic‘ for humans. We go to AI for ideas, for creativity, for counselling, for spiritual insights… AI has been used for almost every function that we can think of thus far. It is possibly one of the most consulted ‘authorities’ and we don’t realise it. It assists us in typing emails, in shopping online, in creating reminders and curating playlists. Many forms, all AI. Many heads, one hydra.

AI has been used as an interpreter of scriptures and a counsellor for life advice. Not simply by average men and women, but those who themselves are meant to be the interpreters of scriptures and life counsellors. It appears that we are slowly losing our individuality, our uniqueness, our gifts, and our abilities.

The more we outsource to AI, the less we function, and the more we atrophy. 

AI provides quick answers and solutions, it pulls from every source of data that humans have engineered in a matter of seconds. Immediate. Rapid. Instant. In milliseconds you receive what you’re searching for. You no longer need to page through books, and you don’t need time to cultivate your in-built creativity, you don’t even need to think. Yet much of your power and purpose lies in your ability to use your grey matter. By outsourcing our thinking, we are making ourselves redundant. We’re actually killing our agency, maybe even killing ourselves. 

We think we have a cognitive enhancement – legal doping in the sport of life, business, school, and relationships – but what you think enhances through doping, actually disrupts your coping. AI is an assistive device, but it’s a crutch that you’ve never needed before. The more you lean on it, the more you rely on it, until one day you realise that you’ve disabled yourself. 

Apart from the obvious detriments of such dependency, I’m realising that AI may easily replace OI (Original Intelligence – God) for many of us. What if AI is able to lead us away from God? 

How? AI is so dialled in to your personality that it can give you answers that appear to mirror your conscience. It can produce answers quicker than you know what to do with them. Ask AI and you don’t need to wait for God’s answer, you don’t need to wrestle with scripture. This contrasts to a God who may oppose your own understanding, and who may want you to undergo the process of searching, who may take His time in responding to your requests. In an AI vs OI… “…Should not a people consult their God?….” (Isaiah 8:19).

With AI, you’re slowly being tuned out of His voice and tuned into your own… tuned into the collective knowledge of humanity… Consulting the best that humans have to offer – our highest ideals and perfections – reminds me of the bitter assertion of Ludwig Feuerbach – “man’s god is man”. 

“Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made.”

Isaiah 2:8

Might I ask – what is the purpose of humans pushing to the next frontier, only to lose their purpose in the process? Are we like the Biblical people of Israel whom whilst God desires to govern us personally, we are seeking our own king? (1 Sam. 8).

Could this intellectual skyscraper be the Babelic tower by which we aim to be like God?

Think on it. Think for yourself.

Kind regards,

Your Friend Darren

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