The Gift of Life

I was listening to an ad on the radio today. It was a young child that was telling his mom about a fictional story. When the mom started asking where he got such an idea, the child answered that it was from a toy (Artificial Intelligence). This toy asks questions and helps the child create a story. On the one hand it sounds fantastic. On the other hand it sounds terrifying. Does that toy become the babysitter? Will that or the next toy lead the child down a specific ideology that we may not even see coming? Do the parents check out or are they with the child when the toy is leading, suggesting, questioning? Many kids are already struggling with interacting with adults and now they are interacting with machines? I do acknowledge that it could be an amazing teaching tool and play toy for the child, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how terribly it can be abused. Those that are not heading into Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with a lot of caution leave themselves open to be manipulated and led. I am not afraid of technology. I just can see the great dangers. Can we put the genie back in the bottle. No! I don’t even know how much we can control it anymore. The AI videos that are coming out get harder and harder to distinguish. For those old enough, you remember the jingle, “Is it real or Memorex”. Back to the original topic... children. Today, when something happens, my understanding is that many parents “google it”. They look it up on the computer for advice. While this can get quick information, it takes the parents away from learning the uniqueness of their child. Each child has their own personality, abilities, temperament, and learning style. To use the internet for information to process can be good. To use it as a teacher, one size fits all, is dangerous. God tells us that we are meant to train the children in the way they should go and they will not depart from it. The computer and AI will likely not have a Christian component to it. Faith is a relationship that is to be nurtured and often modeled by parents, church members, and the pastor. We are in a time of Christian renewal in many parts of the country. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, ministers... let us be extremely cautious of how we use technologies. Father, show us how we can use technology for Your glory and what things we should avoid to keep from stumbling. Amen