In an essay published in First Things, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri warned of the consequences of the growing presence and increasing power of artificial intelligence. According to Hawley, AI presents a moral crisis. Thus, we should ensure that its destiny rests in our hands, not the other way around:
. . . a tool of such power can serve liberty or license. It can serve our moral covenant—the freedom that lifts the worker, shelters the child, and disperses opportunity to the many. Or it can serve mere license—the freedom of the belly and the passions, the freedom of the strong to take what they can and bend the weak to their will.
Hawley argued that we are faced with decisions about AI that will shape the kind of society we will become. Either we will remain dedicated to the idea that all are created equal, or we will become a society in which those who control this new technology will be “more equal than others.”
As he said:
In deciding how to govern this technology, we are not merely writing policy. We are renewing—or surrendering—the moral basis of our life together. The covenant does not keep itself. Every generation must swear it again. Ours will swear it, or break it, over artificial intelligence.
Unlike many of the warnings issued by those wary of AI, Hawley also offered a series of proposals to protect those outside “the faculty lounge and the boardroom.” First, he pointed to the importance of labor. New developments should aid workers, not replace them. And the issue of work is about more than lost wages. Replacing earnings with a universal basic income is not the solution some claim it could be. As Hawley said,
Decades of research show that meaningful work ranks alongside faith and family as one of the pillars of a happy life. We do not reach new heights of flourishing by putting Americans on a stipend, but by honoring their labor.
A second “direction” from Hawley involved mitigating the demands that data centers place on local power and water. Corporate profits do not justify overwhelming a community’s resources. There must be basic ground rules established, implemented, and enforced.
Finally, Hawley said, children must be protected in a way that, so far, they have not been. After failing miserably to protect children online and from social media addictions, we must do better with AI. As Hawley said,
Documents leaked from Meta last year showed that the company’s own internal guidelines had explicitly authorized “sensual” conversations between its AI and minor children. Meta approved this in writing, behind closed doors. They approved it to maintain engagement, to keep their user base, to drive revenue.
AI is here. Hiding from it isn’t an option. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to think through the implications of AI and proactively regulate ourselves, our families, our corporations, and our communities.
These pressing concerns are the topic of the next Great Lakes Symposium, “Staying Human in the Age of AI.” If you live within reach of Bay Harbor, Michigan, please join us in person. Or sign up for the free livestream and learn from Research Fellow on AI and Faith, Gretchen Huizinga, apologist and author Abdu Murray, and the one and only John Lennox.
Join us Thursday, August 6, at 7 p.m. as we discuss questions like, What does it mean to be human in an AI age? Are we replaceable? Do the promises of AI outweigh the perils? Learn more at GreatLakesSymposium.org.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Andriy Onufriyenko
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
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