Last week\u2019s music video, related to the message titled \u201cScared Spitless,\u201d was a song called \u201cNot Lukewarm,\u201d and it elicited many comments and questions. The quartet that performed the song comprises handsome black singers sincerely sharing a musical Gospel in tight harmonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group is called Advent World, and I learned that its headquarters is in Dayton, Ohio, despite the vaguely Caribbean accents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group, although I had been unaware of it, is popular, and has a catalog of many commercial songs and albums. The repertoire includes traditional hymns and contemporary Christian songs. I confess that seldom have I altered my perception of an artist or musical group so abruptly or quickly as with Advent World, and most of the correspondents to MMMM shared the same reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we focused on: no<\/em> problem with Advent World\u2019s theology or Christian witness, at all. But after watching a video, or several, after clicking on their YouTube selections, we notice that their harmonies are somehow too<\/em> tight; the quartet members\u2019 mouths move in machine-like precision; the facial expressions are uniform; the eyes seldom blink; and so forth. A growing feeling takes hold, that we are watching robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 in fact, we are. Sort of. It is called Artificial Intelligence. The website of the \u201cgroup\u201d describes its chosen mode: \u201cWe use digital media to share Christ-centered content with people around the world\u2026. Our songs and visuals are produced through a human-led, AI-assisted creative process. AI assists with voices, music, images, and visual production under human direction.\u201d Again, there should be no misunderstanding that viewers question the faith or commitment of the creators of these productions. But many people think it is somehow creepy. (Or curious why all that technology and those efforts and apparently real voices are employed to substitute for\u2026 performances by real people.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its name also confused me a bit, and I learned that \u201cAdvent\u201d refers to the producers\u2019 affiliation with the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. Despite some points of heterodoxy, Adventists are regarded as largely mainstream Protestants. Ironically, Advent World does not list its relation to Seventh-Day Adventists. Where did I learn of its relationship? By consulting AI, Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, ironic; or, these days, appropriate. But is it dangerous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What could be dangerous about AI?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it not a portal to greater understanding? Not necessarily: AI accumulates facts and shares knowledge\u2026 but is not an automatic dispenser of understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it an aid to wisdom? Not necessarily: wisdom requires grounding, morality, and a perception of reality, none of which are imparted by clicks on a keypad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can AI be anything but a boon to creativity, social maturity, human progress? Not necessarily: the same promises were made when the internet itself came upon the scene, and more than half the \u201chits\u201d dredge up bogus claims, political propaganda, and porn. Television was to be a blessing, but even in its early days the FCC Commissioner himself called it a \u201cvast wasteland\u201d and today it consists of mindless programming and seemingly endless commercialism. The \u201cnuclear age\u201d was to humankind\u2019s salvation, and now\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of these things are bad in themselves. But as Theodore Roosevelt said about the right to vote, \u201cits usefulness depends upon the character of the user.\u201d Human nature is inherently evil \u2013 \u201cdeceitful and sick above all things,\u201d Jeremiah 17:9 \u2013 redeemed only by Salvation in Christ; and therefore the greater social latitude given to people, the more dangerous (that word again!) and double-edged advancements like AI can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDangerous\u201d is bad \u2013 AI puts thoughts in our minds and words in our mouths when we unhesitantly rely on it. But \u201cDestructive\u201d is even worse \u2013 AI discourages independent thought, research, and creativity. It will spread like a spreading stain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For any sort of writing, from communication to scholarly papers to persuasion, AI makes us lazy. In politics, it substitutes for debate and the deep dives that vital issues demand of us. In religion, it can make a mockery of Faith \u2013 force-feeding matters of doctrine and belief. For those who seek the Truth, it tends to remove the \u201cseeking.\u201d It becomes Artificial Intelligence without the Intelligence \u2013 which is like being Godly without the God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will relate this to another contemporary term that insults our \u201cintelligence\u201d: Intelligent Design. If there is a design, there must be a designer, and the intelligence of a designer becomes almost irrelevant. That term seems to me \u201cdesigned\u201d to deny the presence, role, and work of Creator God. Another misuse of the word \u201cIntelligent\u201d to flummox otherwise intelligent people. Yet\u2026 many people are persuaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my favorite Gospel singers, Vestal Goodman, was also a mighty prayer warrior. She began many of her powerful prayers of thanksgiving, \u201cFather God, how You must trust us\u2026\u201d and indeed the Lord does trust us, in many ways. He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell believers, so technically we earn God\u2019s trust as His vessels precisely to the degree we yield ourselves to His Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That view of God\u2019s trust is not to diminish God\u2019s role, but in humility to acknowledge the source of our wisdom, strength, and spiritual initiatives. Yes, we can view it all, taken together, as intelligence in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But God sent the Holy Spirit to impart Real Intelligence. Nothing Artificial. Know the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n