The Christian AI Watch

A quick look at this week’s stuff found while on watch

• Faith - John Piper gave an animated assessment of AI and prayer.

• Work - Anthropic’s CEO predicts a depressing future that his company will help create

• Business of the End Times - OpenAI and Jony Ive Join Forces

• AI News to Watch

• The CAIW Book of the Week (or month, depending on how fast I read it)

FAITH

John Piper, AI, and Prayer

John Piper gave the opening keynote at this year’s The Gospel Coalition (TGC) Conference (which was held in April, but we weren’t publishing then, so be kind). Piper is a founding member of the group and is well respected by most (but certainly not all—who is?).

Piper asked ChatGPT to:

“Please compose a 30-second prayer to God in the spirit and theology of Don Carson* in praise to the glory of God’s grace.”

* Note: Carson, along with Piper and Tim Keller, was a founding member of TGC. He retired last year due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease.

You can see the clip here, and I recommend you check it out.

Admittedly, after hearing the output, I thought it was pretty good. Then I listened to Piper’s passionate response to the prayer and felt a conviction that I need to be really careful not to get too comfortable with AI’s output regarding my faith (or anything, for that matter).

I also heard a moment when the crowd laughed, but Piper was not looking for one. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Hearing this reaction, I became more concerned about where AI and Christianity’s intersection had already taken many. Be watchful.

What to watch for: AI’s ease of use and vast knowledge are enticing. It is an elixir, especially for those who want to know more ‘stuff’. That can never be a substitute for actually knowing God. The enemy looks to take people down where they are most vulnerable. Be on watch, be on guard for AI’s shiny baubles.

1 Peter 5:8 reminds us:

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (ESV)

WORK

Anthropic CEO Warns About AI and Your Job

Anthropic's AI offering, Claude, is one of the chief competitors to ChatGPT in an increasingly crowded AI marketplace. The company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, has been a bit more candid than most about the potential impact that AI tools could have on society.

Now, my inner marketer is quick to remind me that the attention he has garnered follows Anthropic’s latest product release. Hmmmm, does saying something controversial draw attention to your company and its product, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT? Uhhh, gee, I don’t know.

But anyway, Amodei’s ‘concerns’ are not purely hype and science fiction. Job loss and tremendous change are on the horizon due to the proliferation of AI tools and the desire for companies to streamline and gather larger profits.

So, how bad were his predictions? You be the judge.

“Amodei believes the AI tools that Anthropic and other companies are racing to build could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to as much as 20% in the next one to five years, he told Axios on Wednesday. That could mean the US unemployment rate growing fivefold in just a few years; the last time it neared that rate was briefly at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

If the truth is only half of what Amodei is saying, this is not good for anyone, believers or not. One victim of this kind of economic upheaval could be the church itself. If people are not making money, the precious few who tithe may not be able to do so, thus hurting the church where it hurts a lot: at the offering plate.

And the kids coming out of college? Well, better hope they have the talent to make Etsy-ready products. Even scarier, parents may need to prop up their kids financially for longer than their plans called for.

What to watch for: As believers, we have to be ready for anything, but not in the sense of worldly preparation. Yes, we should be saving, being strong stewards of the resources God provides, and trusting in Him. Our real job is to be ready spiritually for any difficulties that come our way. Are you ready should your work go away? If we focus only on the here and now, are we paying attention to the right things?

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 makes it clear what should have our full attention.

 ¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (ESV)

BUSINESS OF THE END TIMES?

OpenAI Gets the Design Wizard of the iPhone

The picture above shows the future of AI and how it will become a device for all of us to carry as the number of the beast. Oops. I'm getting ahead of myself here. Sorry.

OpenAI and io are two companies joining forces to turn OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its various AI products into a device that might make smartphones look, well, kind of dumb. According to OpenAI's announcement, this union has been nurtured for quite some time.

The hype around this All-Star team has been pretty loud, and folks are even imagining what a device designed by an Ive-led team would look like. Sadly, all people could come up with is something more like an alert necklace worn by seniors who have fallen and can’t get up.

What to watch for: Not to be outdone in the ‘let’s get way out over our skis and start making up crazy stuff about the new OpenAI device’ crowd, I can’t help but think that this at least has a whiff of the potential to be the mark of the beast. A necklace is not a mark on one’s forehead or right hand, but it could be by the time it is done. Why not? With each new technological advance, we are gaining speed toward the end times. OpenAI’s Sam Altman may or may not be the anti-Christ. That doesn’t matter. That is not the point. As believers, the point is to pay attention and ensure we do all we can to proclaim the Gospel to all, regardless of what the world is cooking. And finally, as always, to be alert and awake to what is really happening in the world, not just the versions handed to us by those who don’t have our true best interests at heart.

Revelation 13:15-18 speaks of the mark of the beast required for commerce at the end of time.

¹⁵ And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ¹⁶ Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, ¹⁷ so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

AI NEWS TO WATCH

The New York Times Caves and Signs AI Licensing Deal with Amazon

Netflix CEO Joins Anthropic Board of Directors 

Former Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt Says That AI is Underhyped

AI Achieves a First: A Peer-Reviewed Paper Acceptance

Meta Splits AI Teams to Produce Faster and Compete With OpenAI

Why monitor general AI news? To be aware. God gives us an intellect; we need to use it. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Or as Brad Pitt, playing Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane in Moneyball, says to his head scout who is fighting what data is doing to the game of baseball - “Adapt or Die”.

THE CAIW BOOK OF THE WEEK

 How To Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed (not an affiliate link)
Author: Richard Susskind

I'm still working through this, but I'm getting a lot of good information from Susskind, a career AI expert. One thing that really surprised me thus far is that he says that AI is 85 years old. It makes sense when he explains it, but it really is something to consider. The biggest takeaway thus far has me considering the importance of process thinking compared to outcome thinking.

What to Watch for in the Future from The Christian AI Watch

Each week, I intend to send at least three ‘articles’ your way. There will be occasional new things to test out, like book reviews, products and services, opinion pieces, and a lot more. This is evolving much like AI is.

Any feedback you have would be appreciated. You can start with the survey below.

Look for us every Tuesday in your inbox! Until next time.