Jesus Needs to Come Soon

The other night, I spent almost two hours conversing with ChatGPT. It was pretty incredible. ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot that simulates regular conversation. The remarkable thing is that this program can generate completely new responses to your questions based on analyzing a mass amount of data. It learns. It even said, "good night" in such a natural responsive way that I felt I was saying good night to a close friend. This technology along with other AI programs are starting to revolutionizing everyday life.

The problem is the lack of control and regulation of this technology. There are bad actors, who would exploit it to gain power, status, and wealth, regardless of how their actions would affect others. There are governments who would implement mass surveillance using AI to limit our freedoms and invade our privacy. There are multi-national corporations who collect, manipulate; and sell our information for the sole purpose of increasing their profits. There are military organizations who would use AI to create more lethal weapons. There are hackers who would use AI to steal money and identities, create more potent illicit drugs or compromise medical and private records. None of these entities care about the damage they might cause to their customers or the people they exploit.

Still, these situations are not the biggest threats. Artificial intelligent might eventually emerge or, more accurately, is emerging as conscious; an intelligence that will dwarf the IQ of everyone combined on this planet; an intelligence that will be out of our control, free to make decisions it feels are necessary to sustain itself regardless of the cost. It would likely see us as a threat to its existence and determine that the harm we have done to ourselves and the planet makes our continued presence a liability. Even with this looming threat, developers still continue to act unbounded by rules, ethics and regulation. They are in a race to make this all happen faster than even they realize. In creating AI with the ability to learn and surpass our abilities, we have possibly created our own nemesis and it may be too late to do anything about it.

We are at a precipice but no one, at least the one’s with all the control, seems to care about how their decisions will affect everyone else. Youtube is filled with videos about the end times; so much judgment combined with fire and brimstone. Preaching various interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the "mark of the beast", many religious content creators pronounce stern condemnations of communities that are viewed as immoral, secular and left. They falsely project their worst fear, losing their power, on people who are just trying to be treated equally and with dignity. The transsexuals and the drag queens are coming for your kids. The homosexuals are groomers, forgetting about the hypocrites that sleep with their congregation members or molest their alter boys.

One of the most outrageous possibilities is that a sexual abuser, who befriends pedophiles, who is the epitome of corruption, who is misogynistic, racist, who couldn’t tell the truth to save his life, who idealizes brutal dictators, and who is a textbook narcissist bent on dismantling democracy, has the potential of becoming the leader of the free world. Again! You might conclude that Margaret Atwood was a prophet—and what do Christians do, evangelicals at the helm, support him. Without naming names...this man has single-handedly caused so much chaos that his joke of a presidency could be the death knell of democracy for the number one superpower on this planet. This man stokes hatred, abuse, white supremacy, racial devision and chaos. His leadership has given his misguided followers permission to treat others, especially those unlike them, with disdain, hatred, and violence.

Our tendency to view ourselves as better than the "least of us", the homeless, the dug addicts, the immigrants, the poor, etc. combined with the love of money and materialism has caused us to emulate our technology, a chatbot AI that could never understand the value of a single life. It is fitting that the agent of our downfall could be something that mirrors our lack of humanity.

God expressed his love for us by sending his Son to die in our place so that we could have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Jesus, our messiah, displayed compassion, tolerance, service to others, forgiveness, love and so much more. He even spoke about love for our neighbour and enemies and healed people who were outcasts because of disease, possession, adultery, condemned by the society he was a part of. This same man is the icon of Christianity. Yet Christians trample over his message of love, acceptance, forgiveness, humility and service to others.

So, it’s not because climate change is decimating our planet or AI is about to dominate humanity or even the mark of the beast might be some rice grain chip implant injected by the Covid vaccine. I believe that Jesus has to come because we have strayed so far from how we were created, with precision and complexity, and the breath of an omni-benevolent entity who loves us and wants us to care for one another, support one other, be of service to one another and champion humility in the way we live our lives...with Him in control. Unfortunately, and inevitably, we have fallen so far from this ideal that the real extinction level event is the self-destruction caused by our shortsightedness and our lack of humanity. We are too far gone. This is the real reason why Jesus needs to come soon.