Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
In his book, The Price Of Tomorrow, Jeff Booth, makes an observation, explaining the impact of AI artificial intelligence on the economy, jobs, and the life changes that will occur because of the staggering effect on our ability to keep up with the fast acceleration of change. When AI is compared to the advent of electricity becoming available for the world’s use and the effect it had on human history, AI will be – If electricity was a match, artificial intelligence is the sun. Dan. 12:4 But you, Daniel, keep these words secret and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will roam about, and knowledge will increase. Like most world-changing innovations we eventually catch up and adjust our lives to the technologies available. However, the hypothesis in the case of AI is that we may not catch up, or it may take us a long time to do so.
I was listening to a news report explaining how fifty-two mortgage brokers who worked for a major bank in Toronto had been replaced by two people who manage an algorithm that could do the same output of work and diagnosis as to whether the applicants for mortgages qualified. One of the major observations is that AI will be affecting the middle-class lifestyle more than other workers because of all the clerical work that will be replaced. In the same report, they went on to explain, that from all the legal files now available online, law firms are starting to use software to find cases and precedents needed to declare in court. There is no need for the same amount of paralegals who once did this work. Plus, this work is being accomplished at record speeds that the paralegal cannot compete with, and the time saved in work hours gives law firms greater profit-margin.
Of course, the mortgage brokers and paralegals who owe on their student loans, are now scrambling for and competing with those who normally apply for entry-level service jobs, thus causing disruptions for the first-time job finders. These indebted professionals have to pay off their student loans while they consider new loans (a vicious circle) to take new courses in other career choices that may also fall redundant to the advancements of artificial intelligence. A lot of those who have been affected end up moving back in with their parents because the cost of living is overwhelming. Rev. 6:6a Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages. All because of the fast and changing technological advancement coming in at lightning speeds.
It is difficult for many of the youth to make career choices for what is not known will be needed in the future. Some young people are graduating after years of study, only to find out their chosen field and the work that was available when they started the courses have been replaced with algorithms. No one saw it coming, including the faculties of the institutions of learning. In some cases, the need for a workforce for that area of service that was chosen no longer exists. These are the dilemmas our next generations are faced with. The wisdom that these future students will need will have to be divinely inspired wisdom to know what to do for a lifetime career. Prov. 9:10 Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
After fifty and some years that I have been in business, I have had to contend with change. When I started in the sales department of my company, the average business had an adding machine, a typewriter, and a black rotary phone on a desk. The high-tech office might have a Gestetner machine for rolling off multiple copies of documents. Then the first thermal roll paper photocopy machines came along, and the electric typewriters started showing up, plus a flashy digital display calculator. Green or orange word display screens on small monitors connected to big computers started replacing the typewriters and plain paper copiers were the had-to-have in every office. The thermal fax machine replaced the noisy teleprinters, and on it went until many of my contemporary salesmen were replaced with robotic phone services.
Yes, change is inevitable, and it comes along whether we like it or not. I was the one selling a lot of these new office products and kept up with all the advancements until recently when company policy changed and started phasing out the need for sales reps. After all, anything can be ordered within seconds on any connected device. I am fortunate because the older owners of the said companies I serviced for years, wanted to keep using their old equipment until they shut down, and servicing those office products is something I know how to do. So, as strange as it turned out, I have a small niche business fixing and servicing all kinds of older office equipment. Therefore, AI and I get along.
Artificial intelligence will never replace our soul’s desire to serve the Lord. All the God-haters, who will misuse AI because of their arrogant visions of grandeur, will be like those who participated in building the Tower of Bable. With sorcery and the advancements of their day, they tried to play God, but they ended up dispersed, confused and lost in their communication. Gen. 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. Thus babbling their way to the next time they tried to be better than God.
There is no man-made technological plan or insight that can outwit the Lord or come close to God’s eternal genius. Prov. 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. What we see as advanced artificial intelligence and the threatening changes that may occur because of it, will still be child’s play to our Mighty God. Look to the Lord for wisdom as to what to do with the inevitable changes of life coming our way. Life with God goes on and it is good. Amen!
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