This article, originally published in March 1987, shows that IFA has been praying about AI for decades.

I recently participated in a symposium on Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind at Yale University. The symposium confirmed my conviction that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) movement is perhaps the most potent threat to Christianity in the immediate future. Some believe it could cause more problems than the Darwinian theory of evolution and other such anti-Christian ideologies.

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Together with Truth, a scholarly publication for intellectuals edited by Roy Abraham Varghese, and Campus Crusade’s Christian Leadership Ministry had the privilege of co-sponsoring this remarkable gathering of 19 of the world’s leading scholars, many of whom were not believers. Among those scholars were four Nobel Prize winners and representatives from some of the most famous universities in the world, including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale and Stanford.

Here are the assumptions of the AI movement:

• Man is an entirely material being. All of his experiences and activities can be exhaustively explained in terms of neural networks.
• Since man is purely a material being, he can, in principle, be duplicated and even surpassed by computer scientists, who are constructing even more complex robots and computer systems.
• This makes the concept of a soul and a Creator superfluous, since, according to AI advocates, it has been proven that man is merely a complex computer.

The prestige of the AI movement is derived in part from these facts:

• Science is the most powerful intellectual force of the century, and the AI pioneers have used (or misused) science to lend legitimacy to their claims.
• The work in AI is being carried on in the most prestigious universities in America and in all the main technical schools, such as MIT.
• Most of the major science journals have accepted the premise of the secular AI researchers.

At the time when Darwin first presented his theory of evolution, it was not resisted by any of the major Christian thinkers of his time. As a result, it became the dominant ideology of this century.

If the AI movement’s claims and assumptions are not effectively combatted by the leaders of our time, Christian and non-Christian, they will have the same devastating effects on Christian thought as the Darwinian theory did. If Christianity is to remain a force in the future, young people must be trained by top biblical thinkers to incorporate the claims of Christ in business, medicine, communications, law and other professions.

Professors have the privilege and responsibility of shaping minds that will shape the future of the world. One professor expressed it this way: “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom…I possess a tremendous power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

Christian leadership must work to communicate the Gospel to educators and then build them in their faith, the long-range impact can be staggering. The Artificial Intelligence Movement needs to be met with prayer, biblical truth and faith in Christ.

How are you praying about AI? Share your prayers below.

Bill Bright was an evangelist and the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, known in America as Cru. Photo Credit: Canva.