We are all developing our opinions of this rapidly rising technology, as am I. I have been aware of its increasing influence for a few years. I am a teacher. I teach ESL to adults at a community college. Students’ use of AI has been increasing, as you might already know. So, what do you think? Is it good or is it bad?

For ESL students, bad, bad and more bad.  How will they ever learn to speak English correctly in unknown situations if they allow AI to do their homework and write their essays, if they always let grammarly correct every sentence they create?  Before AI, they would ask a cousin or a brother to help them write the essays and it was easy to see that the style was not theirs.  I even had a student once whose essay looked like a smart ten year old had written it.  I asked the student, “Did your daughter help you write this essay?”  She said, “No, it was my son.”  Hehe.  Obviously.  Clearly, why should I grade an essay that her son wrote?  If that is so clear, isn’t it also clear that I should not grade an essay written by AI?

Recently, a friend sent some songs to me by a rising artist.  I watched some of the videos on YouTube.  Some of the songs were great, but the visuals looked artificial.  This artist was cranking out songs quite quickly.  I looked it up, and it turns out that he did write the lyrics himself, but used AI not only for the visuals, but also for the voice.  I felt deceived.  The voice was not him?!

AI is literally taking this world by storm.  People are falling in love with it.  That is so sad.  Just like my students can no longer think for themselves, people are losing their creativity.  This musical artist thinks he is still being creative, learning to use all of the tools that AI provides, but think about it.  Think back to a movie like The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston.  Think of the effort, the thoughtfulness, the details that were all involved in creating that monumental movie that is still loved and being shown today.  Where is that kind of creativity, that problem-solving, that beauty today?  It’s all being done by a machine now, and that machine has us all deceived.

I truly believe that AI is the image of the beast.  Think of it.  This creation (creature) is taking away our ability to think for ourselves.  It’s taking away our God-given humanity.  We get sucked into it and think we can’t live without it.  It can do everything for us.  Through Siri, it can answer any question we might have in just one or two seconds.  I have a niece who told me a few years ago that she didn’t need to know how to tell time because all she had to do was to ask Siri.  Wow.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15

In the news last week, it was said that some top computer scientists are even quitting their posts because this “beast,” this technology could possibly try to create a virus that would wipe out humanity.  They believe that it is already out of control. 

But wait a minute.  Stop.  Do a retake.  God is our Creator, not AI.  God is in control, not AI.  God is our Father, not AI.  God’s life is in every man, woman, and child that lives on this earth.  God breathed His breath of life into Adam, and that breath is, even today, still passed on to our children and our children’s children.  

We can take back our humanity, our creativity, our God-given nature that AI will never be able to replicate.  We can read for ourselves, write for ourselves, and create beautiful music for ourselves.  Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and many others had wonderful gifts and brought into this world so much beauty without an ounce of AI.  Our admired statesmen and women dealt with very difficult issues without it.  Artists painted beautiful paintings that people still swarm museums today, just to catch a glimpse of them. Parents raised thoughtful and responsible children who became thoughtful and kind adults without it.  Authors wrote beautiful and monumental novels to uplift us.  Victor Hugo, Jane Austin, Tolstoy, Steinbeck.  We admire them all for the beauty, the thoughtfulness, and the inspiration they added to our civilization.  Not one of them needed AI to inspire them.  

The Bible, or parts of it, has existed for several thousand years.  It was written without one iota of AI, and yet its pages contain the God-inspired words of salvation.  God can still save us from ourselves.  

While we might say that AI seems to make some routine tasks easier, it actually takes away more than it gives.  What makes us human is our connection to God.  We need to take it back.  It’s His life that creates beauty for our world.  It’s His life that inspires us.  It’s His love that inspires us to be kind, creative, thoughtful, and helpful.  I’m sure the video below used technology to put all the parts together, but her voice is real, the images are real people, and someone actually played the instruments.  For so many reasons, as Reba so beautifully sings in this song (from nine years ago, without AI) – We have to give this world back to God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9q-08aTNh8&list=RDS9q-08aTNh8&start_radio=1