In recent weeks concerns have been raised about the safety of artificial intelligence with some experts in the field warning of a genuine existential threat to humanity if adequate measures aren’t put in place to mitigate the risk.
More concerning still perhaps is the fact that others have said the warnings given by those in the know are nothing but a hoax – and the only safeguard necessary is to have someone as intelligent as they claim to be in charge.
But what, to me at least, is interesting is how desperate such self-proclaimed saviours of the world are to come out on top – and how determined they are to stay ahead of China in the race to develop this technology because, it’s believed, ‘whoever wins AI, wins’.
It seems then that the world wants to win, even when winning might just be the end of the world.
And so we have here an example of how the world so often thinks. How it instinctively assumes that winning is good, that success comes through evermore advanced technology, and that we overcome the enemy only by exerting sufficient force.
But what if the story of AI was a modern-day parable? What if winning ultimately kills us? And what if defeat is the true road to victory?
Because whilst to suggest as much might sound foolish, to think that way may in fact prove wise.
For the very simple reason that the one who has ultimate authority, and far more genuine intelligence than all world leaders put together, said that the first will be last and the last will be first.
And then went on to prove it.
For it was through his sacrificial death on the cross that he redefined what winning looks like. And he secured complete salvation for all those who, having trusted him for it, take up their own cross and follow him.
And so it is that those who lose their lives for Christ’s sake will find them. We win, not by lording it over others, but by considering them more highly than ourselves, by loving them just as Jesus did when he came – not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
For the cross speaks of how God thinks and acts in ways that are fundamentally different to the way that the world thinks and acts – and wins in ways that, to human eyes, only look like defeat.
‘For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’ [1 Corinthians 1:25]
Related posts:
To read ‘Me, myself and AI – interacting with the ghost in the machine’, click here
To read ‘Keeping it real’, click here
To read ‘Machines – enough to drive you berserk’, click here
Some musings 