This topic is a little off the normal path for me but I thought it important enough to write a short post.

Artificial Intelligence or AI. What do you know about it? If you don’t know much about it you should do a little research because it’s about to change your life, indeed the lives of us all.

Many industries and jobs currently done by humans are being and will be disrupted. Have you heard of the writer’s strike in Hollywood? It’s partly because AI can write scripts and story lines just as good as a human writer. It won’t be long before anyone will be able to generate their own content, to include full length movies or living inside an AI generated virtual world. The matrix?

A few years back I read a a post by a blogger about how AI could blog better than he could. At the end of the post, it was revealed that an AI engine had actually written the post. He jokingly commented that he was out of business as a writer.

Humans in the arts will be the first to be displaced by AI. If you are in CGI or computer coding then you better get smart on AI or you will be displaced out of your livelihood.

Even fashion modeling is being transformed by AI. If you need a model to help market a line of clothing, simply describe what you need to an AI entity and you will have whatever virtual model you want rendered in the clothing you want on display, no need to hire a model anymore.

Maybe it’s fitting that AI takes over the arts given all the garbage produced under the auspices of art.

It goes on and on. The so called singularity – the AI capability that achieves Artificial General Intelligence or AGI may be only a few years away. At that point it will be impossible to distinguish between an AI entity online from a real human. Maybe some comment you receive on your blog post is from an AI entity? This is happening right now.

I follow the developing AI tech but what compelled me to write this post now was a YouTube presentation about what the company NVidia has been doing in this rapidly emerging technology.

NVdia is a technology company that specializes in computer graphics and imaging. They have developed powerful AI capabilities that enhance and speed image processing as well as language processing.

The image capabilities will transform the gaming industry and open the door to real time augmented reality and virtual reality, arguably the technology that will enable the Antichrist “image of the beast”. (A few years ago I stumbled on a virtual rendition of the false god Zeus in a Microsoft app called Ancient Olympus. You can see old Zeus seated on his throne in virtual reality. Now imagine combining that rendering with AI real time animation and voice. Full – on AI powered image of the beast from any smart phone.)

But what really caught my attention was the language processing. With the coming technology, it will be possible (as an example) to hold a video teleconference using avatars rendered to look exactly like a person. And from that persons perspective, they would be able to have any language translated in real time so that all members of the teleconference could hear all communications in real time as if it were in their own language.

AI will soon be able to ensure intended meaning is communicated accurately to include cultural nuances of language. So the “universal translator” of Star Trek will soon become reality.

Is the advent of AI going to reverse Genesis 11:6-9? It seems we are on the cusp of coming full circle back to the goal of the Tower of Babel.

Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.”

Genesis 11:4 (NET Second Edition)

Recall what the Lord’s observation and how he halted the development of the tower.

And the LORD said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”

Genesis 11:6-7

Does AI threaten to overturn this result?

How should the church respond? I have a few suggestions but the church still has its head in the sand and seems too busy driving operations back to a pre – COVID money driven status quo, not recognizing everything has changed.

I would suggest that a good start for churches would be to 1) wake up and recognize the sea change in our culture 2) ensure congregations are aware of these things as a priority for prayer 3) halt the fruitless pursuit of the resource intensive church model 4) return to the vigorous preaching of God’s Word and 5) redouble efforts to train and equip people to share the gospel.

Of course, the one thing believers can rely on is the Lord is sovereign and will respond when and how he chooses.

We live in interesting times. Wake up; arise and shine!