AI and Faith

Artificial intelligence promises an exciting new future that not only allows us to invent and create in an unprecedented way but to also interact with our technology like interacting with a person.  

I recently purchased a new car that has a self-driving feature referred to as Pilot Assist. And although the current technology is amazing and awe-inspiring, it is far from perfect…

It will frequently alert the driver to resume steering control because, despite all the visual and ultrasonic input, the system becomes “uncertain” what to do in various circumstances. 

Limitations of AI

Under ideal lighting, road, and weather conditions, the car’s cameras look ahead of the vehicle several hundred meters looking for objects and maintaining the car between the road markings.

However, some common scenarios that cause the system to revert control to the driver is its inability to see over a hill or around a sharp corner. 

If the system cannot “see” the road far enough in front of it, it will disengage.  

Some upgraded artificial intelligence navigational systems will try to learn challenging intersections or navigational obstacles by “memorizing” locations using GPS coordinates.

But, they still require the driver to navigate the area the first time before the system “learns” the way. This still shows a gaping vulnerability in how this artificial intelligence makes decisions based strictly on what is “seen.”

Faith is About Seeing Beyond What is Visible

In the New Testament, Hebrews 11:1 says, 

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Hebrews 11:1

There are so many times as we travel through our life on a metaphoric road we’ve never been, yet, we still have to make decisions and move forward even though we can’t “see” where the road leads…  

Something to ask ourselves: How is it that we can navigate these unknown paths with such confidence and assurance?

Having Faith Everyday

Nowhere in the Bible does it use the term “blind faith,” yet we engage in constant decision-making – one study suggests up to 35,000 times per day!

Exercising faith is not a religious undertaking, it’s something almost any living organism engages in – making decisions and taking actions hoping for a desired outcome.  

A young bee will leave the hive for the first time without any guidance foraging in search of a flower it has never seen before returning along a path that had never journeyed before and returning to the hive with no guarantee it will find its way back.  

Some migratory birds, Monarch butterflies, blue whales, caribou, or herds of elephants will set out for the first time on journeys to find resources and places none have ventured to before.

As humans we undertake such journeys of uncertainty in our history as a species and in our individual lives completely devoid of religion or spirituality. It is a faith we exercise in our abilities, the benevolence of others, and a larger design/order to the world and universe in which we live.  

God does not just call spiritual people to have faith, since it is something we already possess in some measure along with other animals.  

What God does calls us to increase and invest our faith in his abilities, his benevolence, his design, and order.

Lessons We Can Learn from AI

The artificial intelligence in my car is going to be gradually upgraded but for now, it lacks any faith.  

It “hopes” for nothing and is not “certain” about what it does not “see.”  

This is a severe limitation on its ability to navigate my entire daily commute or worse yet, driving across the country like my wife and I love to do!

For now, it is limited only to what is a few hundred meters visible in front of it.  

I hope we do not limit our lives to only what we can see directly in front of us because as it says further in Hebrews 11:6,

 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Hebrews 11:6

Remember, He did not design or create us to live such a faithless existence!

Additional Resources

• Explore New Ways to Connect with God using AI Disciplebot
• Which AI knows the Bible? Challenging ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama, Mistral with Bible trivia
• 10 AI Image Prompts for Stunning Biblical Illustrations