The apocalyptic fears many have surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) evoke a dystopian image of robots someday ruling the world and turning humans into their slaves. But on the other hand, the dreams some have of a utopian paradise in which computers have advanced to the point where humans no longer need to work, all problems have been solved by the power of advanced computing, and a sort of millennial golden age descends upon a liberated humanity are equally as misguided. These two wildly fantastic visions are based upon a false view of humans as basically walking computers which can be improved upon (either detrimentally on the one hand or beneficially on the other) by even more powerful computers. But if the Bible is right that humans are made in the image of God, with all the personal and relational powers that reflect the internal life of the Trinity and thus are both more valuable and more complex than any computer, then such fears and hopes are mistaken.

AI, since it gathers stored data from across the internet, data quickly accessed by powerful servers, and since it can sort, analyze, and deliver this information at stunningly fast speeds; in fact, can learn to predict how that stored information has been used in past human usages and mimic that usage, is an extremely powerful tool which–in the right hands–can do much good for all of us. But since humans are unique, created by God with specific relational skills like empathy, creativity, and ethical sense, no computer can ever do more than mimic them. So humans don’t need to fear that they will ever be replaced. AI, like any tool, can be used for harm or for good, and as Christians we must resolve to use AI to love and serve each other.

• A Troubled Man, His Chatbot and a Murder-Suicide in Old Greenwich (Subscription may be required) – The Wall Street Journal (August 2025)
• The EPOCH of AI: Human-Machine Complementarities at Work – MIT Sloan Research (December 2024)

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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