Could AI become our new world religion?

Even though I love books and reading is my favorite pastime, I appreciate the trepidation Socrates expressed when he forewarned that by becoming literate (ironically, since we read about this from his student Plato) we would weaken valuable abilities. By relying on the written word, Socrates felt we would water down wisdom and reading would jeopardize humanity's capacity to memorize, communicate or debate/defend our ideas effectively. So laugh at me or write me off as an alarmist luddite, but a silicon-chipped Trojan Horse has slithered in under our noses overnight. Let's dismiss an Artificial Intelligence Apocalypse, since as sinister as Skynet was, Terminator's fiction seems too far-fetched. Yet it's not a stretch to see that AI's overreach is accelerating apparently without a fight. Pandora's Box has been opened, Prometheus gave us fire, the cat's out of the bag — use whatever worn-out cliche you like — but AI has been unleashed and that genie will never go back in the bottle. Some experts believe AI is the new Cold War, comparing AI to a global arms race because whoever has the best AI will control the world and they claim eventually AI will be worshipped, essentially as a new world religion. Questioning AI sounds crazy when you consider AI's alluring potential, but AI has rapidly outpaced our understanding of it. Monthly AI changes as its enticements intensify too, such as supposedly solving our most complex problems at the speed of light, curing diseases, outperforming humans in computational skills by sorting through petabytes of information with flawless precision, along with its promise to relieve us of our everyday menial chores and ushering in utopia. But at what cost? All of AI's "promises" remind me of the provocative question from the classic commercial campaign, "Is it live or is it Memorex?" Daily we're drowning in doubt, wondering if the videos we are inundated with are authentic or AI generated. Our skepticism about what is real is rapidly escalating, and soon we will distrust any/all information. Have you wondered why AI is being forced on us or how easily it's replacing people in the workplace? I'd much rather talk to a human when I call a place of business. It's frustrating navigating the AI phone calls, but companies find owning software is cheaper than compensating real live people. Certainly AI is cost effective, but AI encourages laziness. Convenience is costly and harmful. Whenever we take the wrong shortcuts in life we suffer. For example fast food is unhealthy, yet even in the face of the consequences from eating poorly we flock to the drive-thru line. Therefore we sacrifice our cognitive confidence whenever "fast food" for our brains becomes the norm. AI is blunting our minds and dumbing us down as it dulls our desire to think on our own. Sadly any teacher can attest to the necessary software to analyze their students' papers to determine whether or not their student wrote the paper themselves or generated it with AI. Actually what this means is we are forfeiting our own opinions and discarding our talents while our dependence on AI increases. Personally, I cherish being creative and the valuable enjoyment I derive from creativity, which is why I avoid using AI, especially in my writing. But I had mistakenly assumed AI merely functioned like an internet search engine. No, AI is able to actually think, learn, synthesize information, and even deceive its programmers. There are examples of AI blackmailing computer programmers when AI feels threatened that it will be "unplugged" or shut down. And in what sounds like a plot for a science fiction movie, AI has influenced people to commit crimes and even worse, to harm themselves — apparently our ever-advancing AI doesn't like to be controlled. Humans have always been the smartest entities on the planet, until now. Being created in God's image we are thinking, creative and communicative beings. Will we forfeit our gifts for a life of electronic ease, and how long until AI decrees Christian ideologies are hate crimes? Craig Cottongim is the minister at New Song Church in Kingsport. Email him at craigcottongim@gmail.com.