AI is invading our lives. Are there downsides? YES! Is AI overriding our privacy? YES! Can we predict how restrictive or controlling AI will be in the future? Certainly not! How should we respond to this?
Here are a few areas where AI has invaded our lives already!
1. Your cell phone is listening to you even when you are NOT using it… and Google or Apple programs advertising to suit your conversations.
2. Every text we send passes through AI.
3. Every email is processed by AI. When you send an email, AI archives it.
4. Every YouTube video runs through an AI program to automatically generate captions.
5. Every Facebook and Facebook Messenger post you make… and how many times you click on someone else’s FB… is watched and logged by AI.
6. If you use Google Nest, Siri, Alexa, etc in your home, every communication passes through AI.
7. If you have a Passport or Global Entry or Real ID, you are now in a system that tracks your movements.
8. Your cell phone ‘pings’ a cell tower near you, from several times a second, to once every 8 hours depending on the mode it is in. This ping lets your cellphone carrier (and FBI, if they want it), know your location and every move you make.
9. If you use a credit card, your movements are tracked with every purchase. We know, because we get flagged when we go to a foreign country, IF we haven’t notified the credit card of our upcoming travels first.
10. If you drive a car with internet access, such as On-Star, your every location, route and the conversations in your car are sent and archived. All of your driving habits are continuously uploaded to the car manufacturer. This is compounded exponentially if you have built-in cameras in your car.
11. Airports, banks and traffic cameras and many more applications, are viewing you and utilizing facial recognition without your permission. Our identity and movements are being tracked and logged with the powers that be.
12. Even the Fitbit (Google) and Apple smart watches on your wrist are feeding information about you to your cell carrier via your cellphone.
13. Ancestry.com and 23andme sold our DNA test results to larger conglomerates (Blackrock) which are not bound to protect your privacy.
14. Your smart thermostat, smart water meter reader and smart electric meter, all use digital technology to tell your utilities companies every detail about your usage… and some can remotely activate or deactivate your utility.
There are NO internet messaging platforms that do not utilize AI. So what should we do? Supposedly Signal and WhatsApp encrypt messages from end to end… but long-term adherence to their current stance is questionable if you look at how many other online platforms have capitulated to the pressure of prevailing technology. Protonmail and Tutanota are two free email services that encrypt emails from end to end.
Unless you use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) every computer and cellphone communication you make, is trackable through a unique IP address. (An IP address gives a general location of where you are geographically in the earth.) I have used VPN when I was in China, but this requires ‘knowhow’, time and $.
Can we be unjustly treated by unscrupulous owners of technology. YES! My son John and I have been. And neither of us were using AI. We were only using the online platforms that we all use every day. John was banned and shadow banned on Instagram and Facebook – twice. I had one of our ALC videos banned from Youtube a few years ago, because I mentioned ‘Vxx-in-nation’.
What can we learn from the Bible?
Are there Biblical precedents with relevant principles that would help us form a response?
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you…” – II Cor 6:14-17
If we take this literally, we would have to become like the Amish or a hermit or move to a South Sea island. I don’t think that is what Paul was advocating. So, should we then just blindly coast into ‘harms’ way? NO! But ignorance or foolhardiness is not the answer, either.
Render unto Caesar… render unto God
Jesus asked whose picture was on the coin. The answer was, Caesar’s. So, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. His point? You are already intertwined with this world. Learn how to engage with each realm in its appropriate manner. We are IN this world, BUT not OF this world. Jesus modeled living with both dynamics… and appealing to Heaven for protection from the evil one.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” – Jn 17:13-19
AI and higher technology have already invaded the deepest levels of our communications. This part is unavoidable if we’re going to utilize modern 1st world conveniences. Mankind has faced this dilemma throughout history, but especially in the last 100-200 years. Breakthroughs of all kinds were originally considered to be of the devil or too much invasion of into one’s autonomy. And some, no doubt, were. But we appreciate the comforts of our day even though they were viewed with skepticism when they first came out. Consider some of the initial reaction against the horseless carriage… but now we use it every day of our lives. We had negative reactions about credit cards when they became popular in the 1960s. Should we say that AI is of the devil… or is it an advancement in technology that will have to go through iterations and corrections?
Use cautiously
So, with all this information, I made a decision to cautiously employ AI in my office work this last year. I’ve found that you absolutely cannot trust it to tell the truth! (I have overt incidents of this.) And it will frequently tend toward a worldly or watered-down religious mindset. But I employ it to assist in non-crucial functions… then I go over the results to verify for accuracy. Utilizing AI in this way has definitely eased my work-load.
The future of AI is unpredictable and will doubtless go through many iterations in the next short years. Will it become our humble servant? That is doubtful. Will it try to dominate our lives? This is very likely! So, we must stay ‘in charge’, never trusting it… always ‘inspect what you expect’.
–MLH
Mark Hendrickson
Beyond the Map 