I have some concerns about artificial intelligence. Today, I came face to face with these concerns in the car wash. Yes, you read that correctly. It was in the car wash that I was confronted with one of the many facets of AI, all of which I try to avoid if possible. I mean, just the name should be a red flag, right? “Artificial intelligence” as opposed to real or genuine intelligence. Since when do we prefer artificial anything over the real version of that same thing?

Coca-Cola was marketed as “the real thing.” Phrases such as “keeping it real” or “get real” or “he’s the real deal” are popular for a reason. Chefs prefer and use real ingredients over artificial substitutes. In the world of fashion, only the real thing is of value. Imposters or copycats of designer footwear, handbags and clothing are called knockoffs. They are mere imitations of the real thing and have no value of their own. We can have real relationships in person but online it is hard to know if we are communicating with a real person or if we are chatting with AI. Can “artificial” aka “fake” people really satisfy our need for connection and community? I think not. But back to my car wash experience.

I am driving a new car which has many features that my old car of many years did not have. Just fyi – I was happy with my old car, but it gave out. So my new car and I are going through the car wash and my car becomes alarmed, thinking I am too close to the car in front of me as we move forward through the wash. My car starts beeping, signaling me that I am in danger because I am too close to the car in front of me. But there is nothing I can do. Once my car is on that conveyor belt like thing, it is put in neutral, and I have no control over our progress as we proceed through the wash. Every time we would move forward, my car would panic and start beeping frantically, assuming we were going to hit the car in front of us. I guess my car didn’t know that the car in front of us was moving forward at the exact same speed as we were moving forward.

I and my car were in no danger, but my car did not know this was the case. I attempted to reassure her, but to no avail. After all, my car’s intelligence is “artificial” not “real.” I can’t reason with her or point out to her that we are not out on the road but in a car wash. We are not on a collision course but riding on a conveyor belt for cars. My car has no wisdom or understanding or adaptability. She has only pre-programed instructions for how to interpret the world around her. I guess I should be glad her windshield wipers didn’t start up automatically in the car wash because she thought it was raining. Her wipers would have gotten entangled with those car wash tentacles that come down out of nowhere and clean your windshield.

At any rate, I was relieved when we finally exited the carwash and my car’s frantic beeping ceased. Now I’m wondering – is this what will happen every time I take my car through the car wash? She has no “real” intelligence, no ability to learn or to change behavior based on past experiences, no memory. I don’t think I can ask the car wash workers to allow an empty space between me and the car ahead. That would not be good for their business, as the lines are usually long and they need to keep cars moving to get as many people through the wash as possible during their hours of operation.

I must resign myself to the fact that my car’s intelligence is “artificial.” My car is not going to learn new behaviors, nor is she going to listen to reason or be able to “read the room” and adjust her behavior accordingly. She will do only what she’s programed to do – nothing extra or spontaneous. Maybe that’s the draw of AI, its predictability. But I like the spontaneity, flexibility, adaptability, tenacity, courage, kindness and humor of real people. You just can’t get any of that with “artificial” intelligence or pretend people. And why do we even call it “intelligence”? Isn’t intelligence the ability to learn and grow and change as we interact with those around us in meaningful ways?

But you know, even in Old Testament times, people preferred the artificial to the real. Remember the Israelites? Their very real, living God led them out of slavery in Egypt into a land He had promised to them. God parted the Red Sea right in front of their eyes. He traveled with them through the wilderness in a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. The fire lit their way at night, the cloud protected them from the hot sun by day. And yet, first chance they got, while Moses was up on the mountain, the Israelites made a golden calf for themselves and proceeded to worship it. Why?

God was and is real. The calf was artificial. It was man made. It was not alive. That golden calf could not hear them or see them. It could not watch over them or care for them. In fact, the calf didn’t care about them at all. They couldn’t have a relationship with the calf like they had with their Heavenly Father, Creator God – a living God who knew them by name and watched over them faithfully. Why would they trade in that very real relationship for one-sided worship of a lifeless statue they made themselves? Who gives up a real relationship with a living Being only to replace it with a non-living statue substitute? Who prefers the artificial to the real?

Apparently sometimes we real humans do. We prefer the unreal – aka – the artificial to the real thing. Why? Is it because we think this gives us control? Interacting with a golden calf, or any man-made statue or object for that matter, provides no surprises and puts us in charge. The inanimate object cannot challenge its maker or do anything on its own. Actually, “interacting” is too strong a word. An inanimate object provides no reciprocity. It does not “interact” with anything or anyone. It is not capable of forming relationships because it is not alive.

But just as today we are dealing with man-made AI, our ancestors, centuries before us, dealt with their own artificial inventions, much to their detriment. We read about how this played out in Romans –

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-23)

The result of their decision?

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25)

They exchanged truth for lies, a relationship with a Living God for worship of an inanimate object – a statue that couldn’t talk back or reciprocate their feelings in any way. They exchanged the real for the artificial. And it left a void that needed to be filled. We continue to try to fill that void today with things of our own making BUT – nothing we make for ourselves, nothing artificial, can ever fill that space in us which is designed specifically for our Creator to inhabit. Only the real thing will do. My Heavenly Father is the real thing.

“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (‘Ecclesiastes 3:11)

My heart longs for the real thing and will be satisfied with nothing less. God has made it clear there are no substitutes for Himself.

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say; My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Isaiah 46:9-10)

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:3)

“It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.” (Isaiah 45:12)

there is no substitute for the real thing – I don’t want the artificial/man-made version of anything – I want the real thing – we all do and that’s what our Heavenly Father wants to give us – something real and lasting – a reconciled relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus, who said as much when He said –

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

I don’t fully trust AI – but then it’s not real – it’s artificial. It’s man made. I desire only what is real, what is eternal.

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)

“O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

no artificial substitutes will do

sincerely, Grace Day