Christian apologist and Oxford mathematician, John Lennox, has warned of the possible danger of AI technology being used to create a totalitarian society.
Lennox was speaking to The Same Commission podcast by Echoes International, following the republishing of his book, 2084 and the AI Revolution: How Artificial Intelligence Informs our Future.
He said, “Christians really need to be informed about AI, because this is no innocent little thing that will sit on the periphery of our experience. It’s going to influence almost everything. And we need to get ready.”
Lennox noted that one of the real dangers posed by AI is that it can be used by governments to spy on its own citizens, potentially making the work of spreading the Gospel more difficult.
“If we think of AI and mission, particularly working in closed or sensitive countries, the major danger I see is that it enormously facilitates totalitarian government," he said.
“At the moment, we smile about it a bit and we’re happy to use it because it’s so useful. But there may come a day, and that’s not long in the future, before the whole atmosphere of the world changes.”
Much like the printing press, radio and the internet, world changing technologies have the power to do both great good and great harm depending on how they are wielded, and there has been much speculation about what impact AI will have on Christianity and society in general.
Despite his concerns about the new technology, Lennox reflected that the uncertainty created by AI had reminded him again that hope can always be found in Christ and the promise of God’s kingdom.
“What AI has done for me is to bring me back to consideration of something that’s at the heart of the Gospel - the promise of Messiah to come and reign," he said.
"He hasn’t done it yet, but He will - and to increase people’s hope in days where alarmist views of AI, which may be partially justified, are filling people’s minds.”
