We are in the early days of what is the fifth disruptive technology revolution of my lifetime. This new one may be the biggest and most disruptive of all.

Disruption 1. The first was the advent of the personal computer in the early ’80s. I got my first PC in 1985. Then smart people started working on how to connect them all together to share information. Which led to . . .

Disruption 2. The Internet came along in the 90s. This changed everything. Anyone born after ’95 or so has no memory of a pre-Internet world. This led to . . .

Disruption 3. The advent of social networking and social media in the “oughts”, that is, the ’00s. MySpace was first to market in 2003. Facebook came along a year later. Twitter arrived in 2006 and Instagram in 2010–rewiring the brains of a couple of generations of young people and spawning an epidemic of anxiety, insecurity, fear, and rage. Then came . . .

Disruption 4. Smart phones. The first iPhone debuted in 2007. This technology merged the internet revolution with the convulsive changes brought about by mobile cellular phones. Watching television shows and movies produced prior to the year 2000, I’m constantly reminded that most of those plots don’t work if mobile phones exist. Now we have arrive at . . .

Disruption 5. ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI). Every tech company in the world is rapidly rolling out new AI platforms that contain the potential to change everything.

Back in 1990, it would have been impossible to anticipate all the ways the internet and smart phones would change our lives.

In a similar way, it’s impossible to know all the ways AI will change our world and our lives. But, for better and worse, it’s coming. The fact is, all new technologies have had “better” and “worse” aspects to them. Alfred Nobel (father of the Nobel prize) invented dynamite in the 1860s. It instantly made things like construction and mining easier. It also made killing people easier.

Less than a century later, the advent of nuclear power also became a two-edged sword. The power of nuclear fission could power entire cities. It could also destroy entire cities.

In a similar way, social media connects shut-ins like my 93-year-old mother to the outside world and to the lives of her great-grandchildren living hours away. And it exposes those same great-grandchildren to perversity and darkness while distorting their perception of themselves and the world.

All new technologies are like this. Some will use it for evil and others will use it for good. It will make lives better. And it will destroy lives. The problem isn’t the technology. It’s the fallen, broken humans who utilize it. (Side Note: At the root of Progressive and Left ideologies is a denial of that basic truth about humans. We’re all born fallen and broken and in desperate need of a Redeemer. A rejection of this Genesis 2 and 3 truth sits as an uexamined false premise at the foundation of all Leftist ideology. But that’s a discussion for another post.)

One of the most negative effects of AI is already visible. The tech’s astonishing ability to fabricate images and video, and perfectly replicate voices, makes creating fake evidence and false narratives quick, cheap, and easy. Which means the most gullible and naive among us–particularly those most desperate to have their preferred narrative validated–are being duped. Meanwhile everyone else grows more cynical and skeptical.

Given the powers of photoshop and cgi video editing, this trend has been in place for years, but AI is accelerating it to warp speed.

For a while now I’ve been saying that the most troubling end game of this specific use of AI is not that our fellow citizens will believe lies, but that they ultimately will refuse to believe the truth when it’s standing right in front of them. (Note: I have a “Critical Thinking for Christians” e-course in the works that will help immensely with this. Stay tuned!)

Nevertheless, along with the manifold negative uses of AI hundreds of beneficial uses will emerge as well. Uses that make life better, easier, longer, and more pleasant for billions.

The disruptive AI revolution is coming. In fact, it’s here. The impulse in the West will always be to regulate it to death. Of course, Western governments have a terrible track record where regulation is concerned. It will invariably resort in bigger government; another bloated, corrupt bureaucracy; and will hinder the good applications of AI while sending the bad applications underground and out of sight. And while that’s happening, the world’s most evil actors; China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, et. al.; will gallop unrestrained toward developing AI’s worst applications.

Technologies are morally neutral. It’s people that are broken. And there is only one remedy for that brokenness. And we Jesus-followers carry it with us wherever we go.