The Artificial Prophet

It is getting harder ad harder to tell what is real these days.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. - Matt. 7:15-29

Our eyes and ears are not the instruments of proof they used to be.

Jesus warns his followers to pay attention to the things people do.  Don't just accept what they say or how they present themselves.

What you see may not be what you get.

We are living in a time when the tools exist to create a false prophet, an AI version of Jesus or Isaiah or Muhammed.

Imagine how scary and dangerous that is.

We can fashion our false prophet to look the way that is most in line with the community we wish to influence, and we can fill this creation with the wisdom of the ages.

The mass appeal will be unparalleled.

We might embrace the idea at first, hoping to attract young people to Christ and the church, since so many of our churches have an abundance of empty pews.

And we might even like the approach, since an AI entity cannot be controlled by any one person, so this AI Prophet would not be easily manipulated.

But what would he or she say?

Would it remain influenced by its designers, touting climate change as a man-made assault against God and Creation, or would it develop its own priorities?

And what would they be?

What made the prophets of old so credible was their humanity.  They were like us, even Jesus, who was born to be one of us.

When a thought influencer does not have to worry about the consequences of its thoughts and words, then what?

Was Jesus hinting at this?

I wonder.

More to come...