“Just ask Google!”

Hannah Tekle
5 days ago
3 min read

Tents of Mercy Congregation

Kiryat Yam, Israel

“Just ask Google!” our friends’ son insisted, when he didn’t get a clear answer to his question: “What does God look like?”

At four years he’s already convinced that Google is omniscient. How does electricity work? What is thunder? Any question is answered within seconds by the internet. And, now AI even digests the information and spits it out in short, analyzed and prioritized form.

How crazy is this young generation?! They are not only digital natives, but AI natives – intuitively using and accessing digital tools that seem to come right out of the most sophisticated of science fiction movies.

And how surreal is it that we are living in the age of Artificial Intelligence, not as a theoretical or laboratory-confined concept; but as a basic tool for everyday life; to plan a vacation or make a grocery list; from the esoteric – “Give me a thorough defense of the Biblical faith in Yeshua to present to an atheist,” to the ridiculous – “Create a picture of me as an animal, considering my personality.”

Information consumption has exploded. I still remember the feeling that all the answers “live” in the library – in row after row of books. I remember looking through a microfiche viewer to read information stored in miniature form on film cards. When doing my university minor in Library Science, I learned about information organization and wording queries; about the best way to find the most results for a search, and about archiving – how and why to organize and store even historical (sometimes extinct and irrelevant) information. But now?! Each one of us can hold a universe of information in the palm of our hand.

The quantity of information and the potential for learning is dizzying. But is it really so good to have access so much knowledge? And if we are all aspiring to be omniscient or at least for our computers to be, where does it end? It’s like a digital Tower of Babel. And with simultaneous translation apps, we can literally circumvent language barriers. So, where is the limitation? The limitation is at the place of connection.

The one thing AI will never be able to do is offer the point of human connection – the connection we are hardwired to give and to need more than any information. A recent scandal typified this downfall: the California lawsuit over a teen boy who committed suicide after extensive “chats” with AI in which he was encouraged to end his life!

“Omniscience” without divine omnibenevolence is disaster and chaos.

It’s no wonder that mental health has become a central issue. On the news, a new kind of therapy was presented called “Forest treatment.” People pay a guide to be taken out to a large forest, helped to put all other things out of their minds, and focus on nature around them. What it looks like. What it feels like. What it sounds like. Basically – to spend a few minutes getting back to the way things used to be.

Our brains are flooded with information, and – what a surprise – we are not meant to contain it all! We are made in the image of God, but we are not God. Let’s not neglect DI while navigating AI. Divine Intelligence is what we were designed for. Divine intelligence connects us to each other and to our Creator.

This season of the Biblical Fall Feasts is exactly the right time to consider our life in relation to God’s design. May your heart seek the original design God has for you, and may you rejoice in His salvation as your name is written in the Book of Life!

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as His counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge, or showed Him the path of understanding? (Isaiah 40:12-14)