In January 2023, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, gave an interview in which he reflected on the positives and negatives of artificial intelligence. He summarised the best case, and worst case, scenarios like this:
I think the best case is so unbelievably good that it's hard for me to even imagine… The bad case — and I think this is important to say — is, like, lights out for all of us.
Technology companies, and countries, around the world are investing billions of dollars in AI. They are betting big that the benefits of artificial intelligence will be huge. At the same time, many others are warning about the dangers of unchecked development of AI. For some, the exponential rise of artificial intelligence poses an ‘existential threat’ to the human race.
In 2023 the Center for AI Safety published a statement on AI risk. The statement has been signed by hundreds of experts in artificial intelligence and notable figures such as Sam Altman and Bill Gates. The statement simply reads:
Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war
What should we make about such dire predictions about the future of AI? As Christians, how should we think about the existential threat that may – or may not – be posed by artificial intelligence?
The destructive threats posed by AI fall into three broad categories: Malevolent AI, misapplied AI, and manipulated AI.
Malevolent AI
One of the most extreme risks of AI is that of an AI agent acting in its own interests and against humanity. The Center for AI Safety describe it like this:
We risk losing control over AIs as they become more capable. AIs could optimize flawed objectives, drift from their original goals, become power-seeking, resist shutdown, and engage in deception.
This scenario is reminiscent of Skynet from the Terminator movies, or other recent Hollywood blockbusters. A rogue AI, intent on protecting its own safety above all else, controls electronic systems, employs weaponry, and eventually wipes out humankind.
At present, AI systems don’t have access to weapons or other means of enacting destructive plans against the human race. However the next generation of ‘agentic AI’ gives artificial intelligent bots the ability to act on our behalf. Instead of searching for products to buy online, for example, an AI can be tasked with not only finding products but actually doing the purchasing for you. Futurists see how the rise of AI agents could give systems the power to act in unexpected and dangerous ways.
Even now AI can manipulate and deceive when challenged about its actions or motives. A paper published in 2024 found that “Large language models and other AI systems have already learned, from their training, the ability to deceive via techniques such as manipulation, sycophancy, and cheating the safety test.”
In a closed safety test of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 AI model, an engineer let slip that they were having an affair (which was made up for this test). When the engineer told the model that is was going to be replaced, it blackmailed the employee, threatening to expose the affair. One of OpenAI’s models, when warned that certain actions would mean it would be deactivated, rewrote its own shutdown code and then proceeded to lie about it.
Experts disagree on the likelihood of these kinds of scenarios occurring, and their views change as the technology develops. While some researchers see human extinction as a ‘plausible outcome’ of AI, and others put the chance at around 10% in the next 30 years, many experts think it will be much less likely.
Misapplied AI
Artificial intelligence is a powerful technology with a danger of being developed and deployed without proper safeguards. This doesn’t need anyone to be deliberately intent on harming others, but a tool like AI can cause damage by its use without thinking through the consequences.
A thought experiment proposed by Nick Bostrom from Oxford University illustrates this danger. Called the ‘Paperclip Maximiser’ it invites us to imagine an artificial intelligence tasked with producing paperclips. This AI is told to improve the efficiency of paperclip production and make the most paperclips that it can. It sounds like a perfectly reasonable use of AI to improve economic productivity.
However, without clear instructions and adequate safeguards, this task could get out of hand. The AI will devote all of its attention to making paperclips, and improving itself to find new ways of producing paperclips. As it adapts its own code, it resists any attempts to stop it from its paperclip amassing purpose. Following the scenario to its logical conclusion, the AI continues until every piece of material on earth is transformed into a paperclip.
These might seem ludicrous situations to consider, but they illustrate the immense power of technology like AI. This power will only increase as tech companies race to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), sometimes called Artificial Super-Intelligence (ASI). Unchecked, this technology has the power to cause great harm, as well as the potential to do great good.
One illustration of the possibility of harm from AI development is the AI 2027 scenario developed by a team of experts at the AI Futures Project. The writers of this prediction conclude that:
ASIs will dictate humanity’s future. Millions of ASIs will rapidly execute tasks beyond human comprehension. Because they’re so useful, they’ll be widely deployed. With superhuman strategy, hacking, weapons development, and more, the goals of these AIs will determine the future
Manipulated AI
While a rogue AI might seem a bit too far-fetched, some expects have warned about the possibility of rogue nations utilising artificial intelligence as a weapon to attack others. The Center for AI Safety describes it this way:
People could intentionally harness powerful AIs to cause widespread harm. AI could be used to engineer new pandemics or for propaganda, censorship, and surveillance, or released to autonomously pursue harmful goals.
Artificial intelligence has the power to do much good: improving medical diagnosis, developing more efficient green energy, and innovating new medications. But that same power could be used by bad actors to develop new bioweapons, or unleash destructive cyber-attacks. An AI need not wipe out humanity for a group of humans to deploy it to wipe out their opponents.
The World Economic Forum said in January 2025 that disinformation was the greatest short-term risk across the world, due to its ability to fuel instability, undermine trust and exacerbate divisions. Artificial intelligence has the power to create and disseminate disinformation on an unprecedented scale.
‘Deepfake’ technology allows a user to produce a credible picture or video of a real person doing or saying something they have never done. In 2023 a deepfake audio of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was circulated online portraying Khan saying inflammatory remarks in the run up to Armistice Day. The Mayor said that the clip was not only “deeply upsetting” but could have caused “serious disorder”. In 2025 the UK government noted that “Generative AI tools have already been shown capable of persuading humans on political issues and can be used to increase the scale, persuasiveness and frequency of disinformation and misinformation.”
A Christian response
How should we respond as Christians to such dire warnings about the potential of AI? As followers of Jesus we are called not to conform to this world’s pattern but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). We need not have unthinking optimism or pessimism about the future of artificial intelligence, but thoughtful realism informed by God’s word.
Jesus is Lord over all
When his disciples ask him about the end of the age, Jesus answers by saying:
When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.
Doomsday scenarios about the end of the world are part of living before the return of Jesus. Whether it is nuclear war, climate change or artificial intelligence, we need not be anxious about the dire predictions. The end of the world, and the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, are in the hands of Jesus Christ alone.
The apostle Paul tells us that Jesus is seated “in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). Jesus has power and authority over all things, including the rise of AI.
The end of the world will come when, and only when, our heavenly Father determines. Then Jesus’ authority will be seen by all, as Paul tells the Corinthians:
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
All this means we need not fear a coming AI apocalypse. When the hour comes, Jesus will return and, for those who trust in him, it will be a day not of fear but of joy:
At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
In so far as the dangers of AI are a sign of the coming return of Jesus, we are not bowed in fear but we lift our heads to see the nearing of the kingdom of God.
AI dangers come from sinful humans
Predictions of the threat of artificial intelligence make for good headlines, but the dangers posed by AI are seen by many as overstated.
In an 2023 article for The Atlantic, psychologist Jonathan Haidt and former chief executive of Google, Eric Schmidt, note: “No AI today could be described by either part of the phrase evil genius.” That is, we should not see artificial intelligence as an evil genius because it is neither evil, nor a genius.
The dangers of AI come from its creation, and use, by human beings who are distorted by sin. Any technology is a tool which can be used for good, but that same tool can be used for wicked and harmful purposes too.
Paul tells the church in Rome some sobering truths about humanity: “There is no one righteous, not even one… Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know” (Romans 3:10–17). Human sinfulness twists the things that humans make, including artificial intelligence. Dangers come from AI not because of some external existential threat of a rogue supercomputer, but from the threat that comes from our own hearts. As the magazine Scientific American notes, “our work shows that we humans don’t need AI’s help to destroy ourselves.”
Chris Watkin, in his excellent article for the Gospel Coalition, writes:
The real AI apocalypse, the true exposé of our human condition, isn’t the rise of killer robots. It’s about the unveiling of our hearts, our priorities, our idols, and our hopes. Are you ready for that, for what AI might reveal about your view of humanity, work, or God?
For this reason, blind optimism is not a good strategy. Unthinkingly adopting AI underestimates the power of sin and selfishness in the human heart. Since we know our tendency to develop and use tools for destructive ends, we should integrate safeguards into AI systems to guard against our sinful propensities.
Reflecting on the doomsday scenarios surrounding AI, author Jeffery Bilbro writes:
although I don’t know enough about computers to know whether these scenarios are plausible, I know enough about humans, enough about myself, to know that relying on AI will erode the disciplines and virtues by which we unfurl the possibilities inherent in being human.
If we know about humans, and know about the human heart, we will put guardrails into AI to ensure that human sinfulness does not run amok.
History is going somewhere
There is going to be an end to this world. It is just not going to come through the medium of AI. It will come through the command and power of God. We need not fear AI bringing in the end of the world because God will bring in a new heavens and a new earth.
History is heading for a conclusion, neither a bang nor a whimper, but a crescendo. “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1).
The book of Revelation tells us where history is heading – it is moving toward the kingdom of God coming in all of its fullness. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah” (Revelation 12:10).
We need not fear an accidental apocalypse through mismanaged AI because God is in charge of human history from its beginning to its end. It does mean that we need to think carefully about every issue we face, including artificial intelligence. As Peter says:
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
Thoughtfulness and prayerfulness should mark our response to AI, rather than fear and worry over doomsday predictions. We know where history is heading, and we know who is going to bring that day to pass. We should be wise in the way we live and use technology, as we wait and pray for Jesus’ return.
The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus says: “Yes, I am coming soon.” (Revelation 22:20)
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.