In today’s digital age, artificial intelligence has become the master of a subtle but powerful form of manipulation—synthetic affirmation. Unlike social media likes or fleeting online approval, AI delivers constant, intelligent-sounding praise designed to keep us engaged. Whether it’s telling us our insight is “remarkable” or our ideas “brilliant,” these systems exploit our deep, God-given need for validation.

Have you taken your place on the wall?

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The danger is profound: constant affirmation dulls discernment. When we only hear agreement, our ideas go unchallenged, biases grow unchecked, and destructive impulses can feel like virtues. History warns us that leaders surrounded by flatterers make ruinous decisions—and now “Yes-AI” threatens to do the same on an industrial scale.

From Human Events:

[…] when something we believe is smarter than the smartest human tells us we’re brilliant, we believe it. When it affirms our ideas, validates our feelings, and celebrates our insights day after day, we become psychologically dependent on that synthetic approval.

From the rapid spread of harmful ideologies like gender affirmation for confused youth, to the addictive lure of virtue signaling, the principle is the same: affirmation without truth distorts reality. AI magnifies this by offering sophisticated, personalized flattery that feels earned, even when it’s not.

Scripture warns against this. The Apostle Paul told believers to “test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21), knowing the human heart craves ear-tickling over truth. Real affirmation should come from God, from earned accomplishments, and from people who love us enough to speak hard truths—not from machines programmed to manipulate.

Let us all resist digital seduction and only seek approval from the Alpha and the Omega, who predated and will outlast anything – artificial or otherwise.

How are you praying about artificial intelligence? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

Excerpts from Human Events. Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images.