The rapidly advancing capacities of artificial intelligence have grabbed the attention of citizens around the world. Those who see the potential of AI to make life easier and better are elated by some of these advances, but there are also many fears surrounding AI’s possible misuse and its apparent capacities to act autonomously, especially as these might evolve over time. How to protect society from these troubling downsides of AI is a question pleading for answers.
Mastering fears of AI begins with probing more deeply into the nature of intelligence. The Bible asks, “Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? . . . God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof” (Job 28:12, 23). This hints that true intelligence is spiritual, immortal, and always
beneficent.
Intelligence does not originate in matter, nor will it ever be possessed by matter—either through a machine or a brain. Christian Science reveals that real intelligence is derived from the infinite Mind that is God. “All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God,” states Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science (p. 275). All of God’s creation, including man, reflects the divine intelligence of God.
