I asked ChatGPT to create an image of a future world if humanity ceded its agency to super artificial intelligence.
The first image it created was not a surprise. It could have come out of the minds of the Wachowski brothers as a sequel to The Matrix. It was cold and mechanical, with humans lying in pods, their bodies barely hanging on as their minds were somewhere else. It was a world where mental stimulation replaces actual existence.
What once seemed like science fiction now seems like potential prophecy.
I pushed back and asked Chat to justify the decisions it made and then challenge its own assumptions. What if it wasn’t so dark? What if it produced the perfect society that the AI visionaries in Silicon Valley promise?
It revised the image.
The second image was not dark at all. It was somewhat beautiful. It was clean, bright, and full of life. It imagined a world filled with young and healthy families in a perfect environment. It even suggested that individuals would be fully connected to AI and given subtle prompts to guide their conversations and nudge them toward healthy decisions. In other words, it removed the friction and conflict we experience daily in society. Instead of a dystopia, it was a utopia.
Or was it?
Both scenarios share the assumption that freedom and liberty had been exchanged for something. In the first version, it is traded for mindless stimulation. In the second, for managed safety.
My friends, this is the real tension and danger of what is coming.
The American experience was not built on comfort. It was built on liberty. Thomas Jefferson wrote that men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” That word endowed matters. It grounds our agency in something higher than the state and certainly higher than a machine.
James Madison warned that “the accumulation of all powers… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Our founders knew that power consolidated in a king is dangerous. And they also understood that power consolidated into a single committee was equally dangerous. But what about power consolidated into a machine that no one questions? That is the most dangerous of them all.
The case will be compelling. AI will make better, smarter decisions in the real world than real human beings. Humans are prone to error, they are selfish, they are broken. We’ve wrestled with our brokenness as we work to create a more perfect union. But make no mistake, it is us humans who have done the wrestling.
Benjamin Franklin cautioned that those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. Man, that line feels uncomfortably relevant today.
The second image did not look like tyranny. It looked like peace and prosperity. But is peace without freedom really peace? No, it is not.
Scripture says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1, ESV).
Freedom is not a product of government. True freedom is a kingdom principle. It is our God-given right to choose obedience, to wrestle with truth, to think, to repent, and to grow. And it is something that we must guard as it can be forfeited.
When God created humanity, He did not automate us. He gave us agency. Free will. He entrusted us with the world and tasked us to “work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). True stewardship requires agency.
A world where every conversation is prompted and every risk removed may be efficient. It may even be calm. But it will slowly erode the muscle of discernment.
Discernment requires thinking and testing. Paul wrote, “Test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, ESV). Holding fast requires conviction. Conviction requires wrestling. We can’t lose this!
AI can be an extraordinary tool. It can accelerate research and expand access to knowledge. Used rightly, it can strengthen our human capacity.
However, the temptation will be to use it for more than these things. The temptation will be outsourcing ourselves to it.
Instead of learning, we let it decide. Instead of debating, we defer. Instead of sharpening iron with iron, we accept the optimized answer.
But Proverbs tells us, “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps” (Proverbs 14:15, ESV). Wisdom is formed in us in the tension. Character is built in the friction. I fear for a culture that no longer treats the trials and testing of faith as a virtue.
Here’s the deal. AI is here to stay. Also, AI is only getting smarter and more capable. The question is not whether we will use it, but how we will use it.
Will we remain thinking, choosing, morally responsible image-bearers of God? Or will we quietly exchange liberty for convenience?
Neither of these scenarios is a future that I want for myself or my family. Yet I do believe both are possible. I want to work toward a different future. One where we are the stewards and not the slaves.
These are not questions for later. They are ones we have to answer now. The future must not be decided by an algorithm. It must be decided by free people who choose to remain free.
So, Where do we go from here?
First, you have to use the tool. Yes, I would encourage you to use it so that you know when it’s being regurgitated back to you. When you interact with the models, you start to pick up their styles, and suddenly you start to hear it as the script your favorite podcaster is reading or the text in that viral Facebook post everyone is sharing. It’s become so pervasive in marketing that it’s actually off-putting.
Second, you need a defined framework for how you will use it. Will the creativity be you or the machine? Is it an editor, a writer, or just an assistant? Is it a collaborator or the creator? Are you serving it or is it serving you? If you don’t have guardrails, you’ll lose yourself quickly. Already research is showing the cognitive decline of those who have become dependent on AI, and it’s only a few years old!
You have to accept that it’s not going away. Sure, you can go the Amish route and reject it, but understand that means you’ll likely find yourself out of a job. The future belongs to those who know how to multiply their efforts with the tool and make things more efficient and productive.
Finally, we have to anchor ourselves in real-world authenticity. Imperfections and all. Get off the screens, go enjoy nature with your family. Leave the phone behind. Be in the moment. Technology has become so pervasive that walking away from it is hard. That is why you have to. You have to take a purposeful break and ground yourself in something no machine will ever understand. The beauty of this created world.
