AI-these initials stand for Artificial Intelligence. With the ever expanding potential created by the evolution of our increasingly complex technology we are promised that someday humans will develop Artificial Intelligence. You have probably watched movies such as I, Robot which reveal the human quest to create artificial intelligence and the problems that ensue.
Recently, Microsoft launched a chat box form of AI it named Tay. Rather than being a screaming success, Microsoft had to shut down Tay within 24 hours. The reason is that after chatting with humans for less than a day, Tay had been transformed into what has been called a genocidal racist. The lesson seems to be that if AI is to be created by mimicking human behavior then AI will include our sinful nature. What we create will not be free from sin.
The Apostle Paul was clued in on this all too human truth when he wrote to the Corinthian church. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes a proclamation that we often hear following our confession of sin:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here!"
No matter what we attempt to create, it will somehow and someway be stained by sin. But in Christ, God has created a new order of things, one that we ourselves are unable to create.
That is the power of Christ's resurrection. By our own intelligence, we just can't be free of the power of sin. But through Christ's resurrection, God has set us free so that we can participate in the ministry of reconciliation.
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sin against them."
As we continue to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, let us practice the ministry of reconciliation and be the imitator of Christ. It seems the only intelligent way to be.
Prayer for Today
Create in us a clean heart O Lord, and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name sake. Through your Spirit, guide us to be ambassadors of Christ sharing in the ministry of reconciliation. Amen.
