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Amos 8:6 "[When will the new moon be over] that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the wheat?"

 

Amos is speaking to those "who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end" (Amos 8:4); those who anxiously wait out the Lord's periods of rest so they can begin buying and selling again; those who fail to see the people they are hurting with their single-minded pursuit of wealth; those to whom people have become meaningless as people, and are simply a means to an end. 

 

In the rush and enthusiasm of the AI revolution I see a lot of this same mindset. Many of the creators and adopters are so caught up in what they think AI can do, they are not stopping to think of how any of this will affect actual people - the jobs lost, the natural resources diverted, the privacy concerns, the loss of agency, and ultimately the loss of meaning. Everything just comes down to novelty, efficiency, and the bottom line. Even some of the arguments against AI's adoption have the same blindness, pointing out that the the employees who will be laid off will not have money to contribute to the system. While this may be true, it looks right past the humanity of the employees, seeing them as not much more than cogs. 

 

Elon Musk foresees a future with work being optional while while AI takes up the slack. This is so antithetical to the way God intends us to be. He gave us dominion over the world. He wants us to participate in its care to further His creation. Every single one of us, including the poor and the needy, have intrinsic worth that a computer never will, and the right and responsibility to contribute to this world in a meaningful way. We are not just to throw a handful of silver to everyone so they can put it back into the inhuman system being built at our dignity's expense.