Like the Matrix without Morpheus

AI in Reality

Artificial intelligence makes the headlines. Every few weeks another announcement with a breakthrough product set to revolutionize the way we work. It is the inescapable new thing in every avenue of technology. Microsoft, Google, and Apple all have their own AI powered assistants, while ChatGPT – the technology that broke the lid open on AI – has permeated every endeavor from education and research to marketing and personal development. Almost every space I find myself in has a conversation about AI in it. In the writing world, it is about theft and authenticity. In the coaching world, it is about job security and course development. In the marketing world it is about optimizing content creation. In the entrepreneurship world, it is about optimizing productivity. Even the dance world isn’t safe.

I have visceral reactions to the mention of AI – particularly in its present manifestation and use cases. The most recent was during a conversation with a friend who was describing an amazing session they had with ChatGPT. My body clenched. They used the tool to help them think through a few present business challenges. As they were describing their joy, I felt my neck and upper back tighten. My resistance to entering into their joy was overwhelming. My friend noticed. I shared my reaction, noting how it always happens with me. Bless my friend for asking why. Their curiosity allowed me to find words to describe the reason.

There are some basic attributes of the AI movement that I find disconcerting that have already been covered in depth by others. I’ll mention them briefly here. AI is even more transactional than the current market culture. It promises to become whatever you want, do whatever you ask, and provide whatever you need. It is essentially extractive, having little respect for the work people have done to acquire the vast human knowledge upon which the large language models are built. Even now, as models interact with humans, the models are “listening.” AI is also progressive, continually making the next logical step in taking on aspects of our life. A calendar becomes a scheduling assistant. A to-do list becomes a personal assistant – doing the things we don’t have time for.

But with every advancement there are components of life that are affected. The effects lay bear changes to what we take for granted as a community (culture), and the way we become particular kinds of people (formation).

I have always been fascinated by formation. Younger me was drawn to biographies – the recounting of how someone came to be the person they are – more than any other books. The question, “How do we become particular kinds of people?” Has always fascinated me. I’ve given a lot of attention to the journey – the accumulated activities that point us in one direction or another. Now I find myself asking, “What happens to the journey when AI is a present actor?”

AI’s current implementation gets us closer to the vision of the Matrix but without Morpheus.

The Matrix was the first film I saw to deal with the complex relationship between man and machine. In the film the reliance we have on our own mechanical inventions was articulated and debated; the proposition of instant knowledge was present and celebrated; the ability to overcome the machine’s power was proposed. What wasn’t explicit was the nature of apprenticeship – here between Morpheus, the older wiser teacher, and Neo, the younger, stronger, soon-to-be leader.

In a world in which we have entrusted ourselves to AI, the older wiser Morpheus is being replaced by a machine. The machine can be neither older nor wiser nor relational in the same way a person can be. Still, AI is being rolled out in ways that place it in the position of teacher and guide. This position is essentially entrusted with our formation. Here are two examples:

Apple Intelligence

A recent video advertisement for Apple Intelligence features a gentleman writing an angry email. You know the kind. You are supposed to write these, to vent, but never send them. But now there is a solution thanks to Apple Intelligence. Our angry writer can have Apple’s AI companion rewrite his email in different tones –professional, friendly, or kind. In an instant his expressed anger is rewritten and appropriate to send.

Our angry email writer doesn’t need to navigate his emotions – he simply vents and has Apple Intelligence rewrite his words for him. His impact on those he communicates with is mitigated, but he remains the same. Next time he is angered, he will likely have the same response (to write an angry email), requiring AI to come to his rescue again. This might work well when communicating screen to screen, or through writing, but what happens when something happens in person? AI undermines the spiritual formation that accompanies navigating anger in person.

AI Jesus

A church in Switzerland installed an AI Jesus in a confessional booth as part of a scientific research project. In its best conception, the confessional booth is a sacred space. It is meant to facilitate the confessing of infractions in one’s relationship with God. The confessor shares their infractions with a listener – most often a priest. Instead of receiving condemnation, the confessor is meant to receive forgiveness and maybe further guidance as to how to refrain from continued infractions. The confessional booth is a formal structure of something followers of Jesus have been encouraged to do together.

In this case, an AI acting as Jesus Christ – offering forgiveness, solace, and guidance to confessing visitors – was set in place of a human being. Everyone entering the confessional was aware of the situation. No one was tricked. However, they were willing to entrust the care of their soul to a machine.

There is a lot here. How much failure in human relationship will bring a person to entrust their soul to a machine? What kind of damage to the reality of the propositions of the Christian faith – that Jesus is actually alive, that you can learn to hear God, and that a Holy Spirit can live within you, for example – might inviting an impersonator of Christ into a confessional do? What ultimate aim does such a project unveil? These and many other questions are all important.

Here, it is enough to say that going to AI for spiritual guidance will likely short circuit the formative nature of following Jesus – or any other guide for that matter. Consider the following statement recorded in the book of Matthew: Jesus says, “…He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” If setting our most profound relationships ahead of Jesus hinder our ability to follow him, what of setting a machine up as our primary mediator with God?

What’s the problem?

If AI can optimize us for better communication, productivity, or spiritual pursuits, shouldn’t we leverage the technology? Yes. However, optimization as AI is being implemented does not change the human, it changes the action. In the Apple Intelligence example, it changes the external expression of the individual’s inner world. In the AI Jesus example, it changes the relational nature of the activity.

These cases bring the questions of who we want to become and how we think we can get there to the forefront. These kinds of questions are more pressing in our ever-changing landscape. In a world that is not inherently organized towards goodness, it is imperative to have a trustworthy guide that can point us toward such things, even while we are “in the world.”

AI is not it.

AI can’t hope for you to become a particular kind of person – that is unless it is programmed to do so. Most implementations of AI, even for personal development are not explicit around the kind of person they are hoping you become – and there is always an aim. It can’t see the expression on your face or sense the burden you are carrying. It can’t be curious about your wellbeing out of love.

Instead of relying on AI to make us better kinds of people, we should be relying on our formation to make us better users of AI. Our formation relies in part on those who we trust as guides, and the life they are pointing us toward. In a world that mimics the Matrix more and more with each new technology, we should hope to have more guides like Morpheus to apprentice each next generation.