Prophetic Insight on Artificial Intelligence and its effect on Mankind in the age to come.

Definition:

According to Wikipedia, artificial intelligence is defined as an intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and animals. In other words, it can be classified as a machine or computer that mimic “cognitive” functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as learning and “problem”.

A brief History:

Artificial Intelligence was founded as an academic discipline in 1995, and in the years since has experienced several waves of optimism and as time advances, it began to gain relevance as more unfolding abilities begin to surface as scientist focused on AI researches. 

The traditional goals of AI include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception and the ability to move and manipulate object and it was founded on the assumption that human intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.

This sounds like a machine possessing a human nature or more advanced than a human and this eventually raised some beliefs about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings endowed with human-like intelligence and some people also consider AI to be a danger and a threat to humanity if it continues without any reduction in intensity and it is also believed that AI which tends to a create a risk of mass unemployment.  Example of such innovation as we can see in the science fiction –the droids from Star Wars films are thinking, reasoning, emoting machines and also the likes of the machines of The Matrix, or Ultron from Marvel Comics. 

However, on a positive note in the technology industry, it has helped to solve many challenging problems in computer science, software engineering and operation research and it has become an essential part in the industry.

The Future Past 

Day by day, scientist are at a high pace in the evolution of the computer age , and easy access to and affordability of computer and information(Big Data) increases with each passing year.

In recent time, researchers reached an extremely remarkable breakthrough. They successfully manage to mimic an aspect of how the brain functions through its neural network. It’s called “deep learning” and the implication of this research is that computers can not only perform analysis faster than ever on dataset of high volume rate, but can further weighing the value of the data. In this pattern, they “learn” as they store up successive results, simulating how neural pathways are strengthened in the brain during learning.

In other words, man is creating an image in his own image and such increase in AI function poses a potential threat to mankind, as its functionality is been enhanced, it can eventually begin to control the decision-making process that used to be the absolute domain of human beings. Obviously the possibility is not too far off in the future.

Due to the increasingly AI progress, some of the brightest technological minds have issued warnings about its deadly potentials.

In 2014, tech billionaire Elon Musk, founder of the famous Tesla motors has said that the rise of artificial intelligence are more dangerous to the world than North Korea and could “Weapons of terror”. He has compared the adoption of AI to “summoning the devil” .

He also warned in an interview where he stated: “One of the most troubling questions is  artificial intelligence…..You can have AI which is much smarter than the smartest human earth. This is a dangerous situation.” He also emphasized on a problem on how unpredictable the development could result to. “One way to think of it is imagine you were very confident we were going to be visited by super intelligent aliens in 10 years or 20 years at the most. Digital super intelligence will be like an alien” (Zoe Nauman, “End of the World as We Know It,” The Sun, Feb. 16, 2017).

Elon musk also joined a group a group of experts warning that intelligent machines are fundamentally changing our society by accumulating personal data, advancing science and medicine and beginning to create a new form of super intelligence.

Also the same year in 2014, physicist Stephen Hawking also voiced out his opinion that the advancement of artificial intelligence could provide “unmeasurable benefits”, but could end the race of mankind if deployed incautiously.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, added: “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned” (Peter Holley, “Bill Gates on Dangers of Artificial Intelligence: ‘I Don’t Understand Why Some People Are Not Concerned,’” The Washington Post, Jan. 29, 2015).

Should We Be More Concerned ??

Back in 2015, “hundreds of Scientist and Technologist including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, representatives from Google and Major AI companies signed an open letter which pinpoint the positive and negative effects of Artificial Intelligence.

The letter warns that: 

The potential benefits of AI ate huge, since everything that civilization has to offer Is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict that we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI must provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable. Because of the great potential of AI, it is important to research how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls.

Furthermore, in the document released Microsoft research Director Eric Horvitz’s was concerned about the Future and the fate of mankind if AI is taken without cautions. 

 We could one day lose control of AI system via the rise of superintelligence that do not act in accordance with human wishes – and that such powerful systems would threaten humanity. Are such dystopic outcome possible? What kind of investment in research should be made better understand and to address the possibility of the rise of a dangerous superintelligence or the occurrence of an “intelligence explosion”?

There should be more reasons to be concerned as human existence and dominion seems to be at risk. I decided to research deeply into this and more and more I found out that that this is relating to the apocalypse been prophesied by the prophets of old. 

I stumbled upon an hypothetical ideology which is termed “AI takeover”. It’s a scenario in which AI becomes the dominant form of intelligence on Earth, with computer or robots effectively taking the control of the planet away from Human species.

This sound like almost impossible right? but looking further, we see possible scenarios where entire human workforce are been replaced by super intelligent AI and one of this real scenarios is the automation of the economy where recent innovation in the fields of robotics and AI has raised worries that human labor will become obsolete, leading to an economy crises. Many small and medium sized business will be driven out of business if they won’t be able to afford or license the latest robotic and AI technology, and may need to focus on areas or services that cannot be easily replaced for continued viability in the place of such technology.

In recent times been aware of the current day world, scientist have successfully come up with machines that have partially taken over of skilled tasks which includes translation, legal research and even low level journalism, Care work, entertainment, and other tasks requiring empathy have all begun to be performed by robots. 

Could This Be the Sign Of The End time? : 

2 Tim 3:1-5 (KJV)

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Anthony Levandowski, a Google former engineer , an engineer know for self-driving cars created a religion called “The way of the Future” and its focus is on “ the realization aacceptace, and worship of a godhead based on Artificial Intelligence through computer hardware and software”. This include funding research to help create the divine AI. 

The pioneer himself said in an exclusive interview that he is dead serious about it . “what is going to be created will effectively be a god”. Levandowski says.  

Literally The Way of the Future is just a modern version of carving a god.

One of the experts is Vince Lynch, who started a company called IV AI that builds custom AI for the enterprise. Lynch explained how there are some similarities between organized religion and how an AI actually works. In the Bible used by Christians, for example, Lynch says there are many recurring themes, imagery, and metaphors.

He further explained by using a simple model “you type in multiple verses from the Christian Bible, you can have the AI write a new verse that seems eerily similar. Here’s one an AI wrote: “And let thy companies deliver thee; but will with mine own arm save them: even unto this land, from the kingdom of heaven.” An AI that is all-powerful in the next 25-50 years could decide to write a similar AI bible for humans to follow, one that matches its own collective intelligence. It might tell you what to do each day, or where to travel, or how to live your life.

Imagine an AI god is in total control, you need to wonder what it might do , telling you how to live your life and the “bible” might contain a guideline on how to serve the AI god.

Daniel 2: 40-43 (ESV)

And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.

Revelation 13:14-18

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six.

Although Bible does not explicitly mention artificial intelligence, possibly in the the end times AI would be a potential tool in the hands of the Beast (the anti-christ). Lot of technological advancements today are headed in that direction to make it possible to tightly control selling & buying. A combination of various technologies make this possible, like in banking sector (where money can be controlled), may be detecting the way people talk and identify believers in Christ, etc., with the help if AI! . This is similar to MYSTERY BABYLON as recorded in the bible which controls the economy of the world through buying and selling. Everyone will have to subscribe to the terms and conditions of these innovations else one can’t successfully make a living in the world to come. 

This is a threat to Christianity in the age to come as AI might eventually become a tool used by the devil to make men deny Jesus and make a living through the offer of the beast. Indeed, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Facebook caught their own AI bots creating their own language last year, and (they claim) they shut them down. Yet most of these social media platforms, search engines, video platforms (and more) use bots and algorithms to censor free speech and discriminate against anyone who doesn’t hold to their own ‘progressive’ globalist agendas.

“Time doesn’t permit to get into how huge a problem censorship of Christians and conservatives has become (and how it will likely worsen). But many of us have been censored on social media for posting Bible verses or for “liking” or sharing conservative or Christian content.” [Rapturenote.com] 

Am not writing this cast fear to the mind of the reader to prepare our mind toward the advancement of the dark age for we light and light ought to shine in darkness, this is where we become more relevant because Light is our way of Life which is Jesus.

Hope For Mankind:

You probably need to check the end of the bible and see for yourself that we won, Jesu will continue to rule in this world and the world to come. John3:16 gave an insight of God’s love for we believers promising us ENTERNAL LIFE. 

This is a time to hold on to God and trust him to help us navigate through this dark age,

Rev 18:1-3(NIV)

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.  With a mighty voice he shouted:

"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.  For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

We will cease not to share the gospel with the lost; we will continue to warn them of that which is to come: and ultimately we look unto Jesus , the Author and the Finisher of our Faith(Heb 12;2), knowing that He will come as promised to deliver us from the wrath to come (1 Thes1:10: Rom 5:9; 1 Thes5:9). He will take us up in the rapture (1 Thes4: 14-18, 1 Cor15:49-53). That we will be glorified into our heavenly bodies and glow as Light as he is (1John3:2)

We have no reason to fear (2 Tim.1:7), but rather comfort and hope, and that peace that passeth understanding in Christ Jesus! (Phil.4:6-7).

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

This is our Hope in Him

Shalom 

Prophetic Scribe Series 

Taiwo Hassan (Tycoach)