The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7
AI-Powered Necklace Will Be Your Friend for $99. “Friend” is a pendant about the size of an Apple Air Tag. Avi Schiffman, the twenty-one-year-old Harvard dropout who invented it, said he created the device at a time when he had “never felt lonelier in my entire life.”
The onboard microphone listens to everything happening around you. Powered by AI, it will answer questions, but also send unprompted messages to engage in conversation and offer encouragement.
In other words, it’s a technological companion to make up for the real thing. Not a day goes by that we don’t use some form of technology. Technology’s influence on our lives stretches back thousands of years to the use of shovels and spears. Whether it’s as simple as a chair or as complex as the systems proposed with brain-computer interfaces, technology is all around. In the last decade or two, we have seen exponential growth in technological innovation. This has led to many asking fundamental questions about how we use technology and what kind of influence it has on our lives.
AI, short for artificial intelligence is the latest exploding on the technology scene. It is big and it is powerful. If AI algorithms are biased or used in a malicious manner — such as in the form of deliberate disinformation campaigns or autonomous lethal weapons — they could cause significant harm toward humans.
While a quick search in a concordance doesn’t yield words like ‘technology,’ ‘artificial intelligence,’ or ‘smartphones,’ Scripture does speak to how we are to live in this world in light of the message of salvation found in Christ Jesus. Technology has always posed difficult ethical and moral issues that are not directly addressed by Scripture. And as much as we want it to, the Bible does not explicitly address how to use or when to avoid certain pieces of technology. However, it does address the moral behavior of Christians in everyday life. The biblical approach to technology is not one of complete withdrawal nor unquestionable embrace.
As technology grows increasingly more complex and powerful each day, it is natural to ask about the moral nature of it. We see the power and influence that our smartphones have on our speech and how they have changed how we interact with one another each day.
As technology grows increasingly more complex and powerful each day, it is natural to ask about the moral nature of it. The Bible doesn’t talk about “intelligence” but it does talk about wisdom, actually in forty-five different verses.
Intelligence in the Bible embodies wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. These elements are seen as interconnected and essential for a virtuous life. Knowledge represents the accumulation of facts and data, whereas understanding underscores the interpretive process.
The Bible never makes blanket statements on whether specific technologies are inherently good or bad, but it does hold Christians to a biblically-grounded morality and engagement with the world around us. We must think wisely about how we use these innovative tools.
by John Grant
used by permission
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