AI wins again. . .

According to Billboard’s "Country Digital Song Sales" chart, the No. 1 song in the U.S. is "Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust—an artist that was created by artificial intelligence (AI).  There have long been suspicions and concerns about the use of generative AI in music and a host of other creative arts.  There have been many conversations in the wake of protests in Hollywood from the writer and actor guilds.  Some wrote these off as disputes over money.  It is surely that but also much more.  The public release of ChatGPT and other similar AI sites were not fully understood until the dollars entered the conversation.  There is a large list oof concerns about the use of this the new technology and its implications.  I would like to add one more.  What does it say about us?  What does it say about the consumer?

One study estimates that 34% of the songs uploaded onto streaming services are AI-generated.  We have not even begun to talk about news, other entertainment media, books, and scholarly pursuits.  What does it say about us that we cannot tell the difference, do not seem to care about the difference, and our interest in even competing with the AI generated content?  We have become dolts and dullards who seem not to be able to tell when the source is AI or when it is human creativity.  Like the old movie Soylent Green, we have become addicted to what is not real and can no longer tell the difference.  Furthermore, we do not seem to care.  If you will pardon another movie reference, there is a scene from National Lampoon's Vacation when Imogene Coca munches away on sandwiches the dog relieved himself on and she shrugs her shoulders.  Have we come down to this?  Even when we know something is not right or not real, we do not care?  For a very long time it was hard to know if the reality scenes or reels you watched were staged or actual spontaneous events but now we know that AI has generated the content and still we are addicted to watching it.  Indeed, the indictment against us is that we have effectively given up even trying to compete.

That is the saddest part of this all.  We have given up caring about the content or caring about the fact that we prefer what is not real to what is, what is generated by artificial intelligence to what is created by real, thinking people.  Others have suggested that this is the last leg of the surrender of our humanity.  We are admitting that machines can do it better than we can -- not the mundane and mind-numbing assembly line work of the factory but film, music, and print.  Former Google CEO Larry Page may have said it most clearly -- “digital life is the natural and desirable next step” in “cosmic evolution.”   In his mind, any restraint or limitation of the digital minds would be wrongheaded.  According to the guy who led one of those companies heavenly invested in AI, it is time to let them off the leash and see what they can do.  In his mind, and in the minds of others, it is survival of the fittest.  So let the best minds win. 

This is the natural end to evolution.  It is the survival of the fittest and it does not matter if the fittest are not human.  It is the end that matters.  There is no room for morality here.  The end justifies the means and the end is all that matters.  Here is where religion is not simply necessary but makes a compelling contribution to the modern devotion to technology.  People matter.  Lives matter.  Abortion is not wrong simply because it causes pain while killing the fetus but because it is the abandonment of our own humanity.  Assisted suicide is wrong not simply because there might be a few who do not meet all the criteria and are allowed to choose the time of their painless death but because any are allowed to befriend death and justify their choice to end their lives.  The cause of Christianity is not a timeline in Genesis but a purposeful creation by an ordered God who made things according to His will and design.  The cause of Christianity is not to relieve pain but to preserve God's creation and gift of life.  The cause of Christianity is not to relieve sin of its stigma or consequences but to confront sin with the only things more powerful -- forgiveness written in the blood of the Lamb.  

We are the only voices left to say that God so loved that He gave His only-begotten Son.  The Gospel is compelling not because we judge it to be but because of the cost the Son was willing to pay so that our lives would not be discarded like trash, compared with machines, and defined by our basest desires.  We are not better than AI and the digital reality because we have proven ourselves to be better but because by design God says our lives matter -- more than the sparrow who falls to the ground or the marvel of nature's beauty or the value attached to scarce metals or stones.  It is a value that has been set in blood.  The world needs to hear this now more than ever.