In this post I’d like to discuss a very real and developing situation that’s going on right now, for people of all ages, but that might be impacting our young ones more for various reasons.
At this point in my life, I remember a time before Facebook, Youtube, Twitter (X), Google. I’ll go even further. I remember a time before the internet and mobile phones.
I can think of the time when I received my first text message when I was already at Uni (early 2000s) and wondering what that was, how it worked and how much each message would cost me.
I remember playing Snake on my phone and thinking it was the best thing ever (p.s. I’ve recently downloaded that same game to my smart phone and it is a bit nostalgic).
All my research was done at the library, on encyclopedias and text books. Everything was written by hand, and it was a luxury to have the first versions of Word where you had to capitalise your own first letters in every sentence – it didn’t do it on its own like it can do now. It didn’t spell check either. We used dictionaries and thesauruses for that.
As technology developed, there were skeptics and there were those that embraced it all fully. I’ve been both at different points.
Learning how to use Metacrawler or Yahoo. Starting to meet people on ICQ and later on MSN messenger.
Now we have everything at our fingertips – Google gives you articles and book references for the questions you ask. It takes seconds to get an answer (though I’d still check and verify things to make sure they’re correct!).
Children at school used to be bullied during school hours, and they could have a break as soon as they left school and got home. Now the bullying continues on social media and directly into their phones.
That is not to say that social media can’t also provide connection and support for isolated people. But there’s a balance here isn’t there?
Your life was mostly private, and to get a picture of your party or holiday, you had to take your photos with a conventional analog camera and you had to take those to get developed at the shop and wait to see which ones turned out good a few days to a week later.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the benefits of technology. I’m just stating the differences between life pre-social media, pre-internet, pre-smart phones, the impact of things back then and the impact of the whole world open to us 24/7 now.
More and more I hear therapists talking about the dangers of using A.I. as a therapist, but more than that, seeing people get anxious about their future.
There is a lot of hopelessness in people as they go through things we’ve never experienced in this way before:
You can now talk to an A.I. and use it as a pseudo-therapist, which as we’ve seen in some news reports, can lead to misguided decisions and decisions that can’t be taken back. (note: If someone is in immediate danger, thinking about harming themselves or someone else, or unable to stay safe, they should contact emergency services or a crisis service and reach out to a trusted person nearby—not rely on an AI conversation.)
There are things that an A.I. can’t do like having genuine human empathy, warmth, understanding and relatability.
Some of the worries I’ve heard are things like:
- what’s the point in doing anything now – studying if my job is going to be taken by robots;
- hobbies that seem pointless because the purpose of life is dubious;
- what kind of jobs will there be available if even harvesting crops is being taken by robots – we can’t predict what future jobs might look like, we just don’t know and it’s hard to predict.
We’ve got a bit of the psychological impacts of A.I from a real world view, and now I would like to give the hope of Christ and some Bible verses on hope in light of the society we’re in right now in a variety of ways and situations – peer pressure, moral upheaval, financial uncertainty, who has the right to life, wars and rumours of wars, divisions of all kinds, and so on…
I know not everyone will feel the same way I do, but I will do it anyway and I am grateful for you reading this until the end, and taking whatever is useful or helpful to you from what I am writing today.
So let’s get straight to it…
Our hope is not built on stable politics, guaranteed employment, human achievement, or technology. Our hope is anchored in Jesus Christ, who gives life its meaning, redeems our work, and promises that evil and death will not have the final word.
Let’s start with the use of A.I. as a replacement for human relationship:
- A.I. can be friendly, but it’s not a substitute for friendship – talk to it, have fun with it, but don’t let it replace real human friendships
- A.I. is not a substitute for pastoral care or professional therapy as helpful as it can be in the darkest times of our lives – use it for journalling, for sounding off ideas and thoughts, as a journal that talks back at you; use your critical thinking when using it and that will help balance your need for organising your thoughts without replacing human support.
- A.I. is not a qualified clinician, it is fed what it needs to know and how to communicate, and it’s getting better and better at it. It can crack a joke and say something very useful, but it might still “hallucinate” and get it wrong. Check with your human counsellor or medical doctor and verify what it’s telling you.
In brief for this part, and in light of the Bible, A.I. is a tool, not a Saviour, not a Shepherd, not a therapist.
It can assist and help you, but it cannot love you – it can imitate loving you, but it can’t repent for you nor sacrifice itself for you, pray for you, or bear responsibility before God.
Make sure to look out for the follow-up parts as I keep discussing this important topic.