Artificial Intelligence vs. Omniscience
One of my friends shared a podcast with me regarding AI, where the show hosts were discussing the potential for AI, and how it would be “amazing to have an AI that could understand us better than we understand ourselves.” Possessing such a deep understanding of how we think, work, and our skills and abilities to such an extent where it could help us make decisions that would benefit us in the long run. It could direct our lives and we could follow its recommendations and believe that it knows better than we do. The algorithms and amount of data it processes creating a science of success, a systematic plan for life satisfaction.
At first blush, that seems quite powerful and enticing. Why is that idea so attractive? It would be nice if we could take some of the uncertainty out of life. Make tough decisions easier with predictions based on processing data we do not fully understand. When we make decisions we decide based on the information available to us, consider as many implications as possible, but if we were able to know the best route instantly based on a hundred, a thousand or a million times more variables than we could conceive of or even have access to, would not that result in a more trustworthy result? It seems like it would be quite convenient to have a super intelligent AI life coach.
If it said, “Don’t do drugs.” or “You should stay in and read Aristotle’s Ethics tonight rather than go to that party.” or “Put in 12 hours of overtime this weekend to get the project done on time.” or “You should buy the car off Craig’s list rather than lease the Tesla.” or “Put the money in savings rather than buy the _____ you were looking at on Amazon.” Maybe even, “Don’t divorce your spouse, work it out.” Would we even listen to its advice?
Someone would have to program it, design the algorithms, consider how to weigh outcomes and variables. Could we trust that person? What if their values were different from ours? No matter how many variables you examine, it cannot be omniscient and know the future. There is just no way to account for everything.
The idea of a benevolent omniscience to direct our lives is so attractive! It is like wanting to build a god to tell us what to do. But God already exists, and he does have a plan for our lives. He does know the future. He has revealed himself in multiple ways, through history, through the Bible, through Jesus, through the Church today. God has answered all the questions we might seek answers for from a super intelligent AI. The peace of mind that the commentators of that podcast were dreaming about, the security that would come from having omniscient council is already available. And not in an imperfect and limited human way, but in an ultimate and supernatural way.
My life is being guided. No matter what the world throws at me, I feel confident in how I should respond. I know what paths I want to take. I know what my priorities need to be. I am confident in the face of an uncertain future, where so many are afraid. Even if everything were taken from me, I know my foundation is solid. That is the assurance and confidence that so many lack. Without God, an AI smarter than ourselves to help us seems like something to hope on. But there is no greater hope than that found in the good news of Jesus. There is a God who loves us, there is life after death, and despite all our faults, we can find acceptance in Jesus who knows everything about us and loves us anyway.
Why do I say all this? If you are feeling hopeless, confused or wish you had an AI to help you make decisions, I would encourage you not to put your hope in mankind’s engineering ability, but in God’s. He is more trustworthy, qualified and worthy of our hope and trust. All powerful, all good, and he knows you better than you know yourself and still loves you, personally, more than anything else in the world. There could be no better source of advice, guidance or security in the world.
