Could AI become a tool of the Antichrist?

The possibilities of Artificial Intelligence are greater than ever. So are the risks.

In February, President Trump sent Congress a proposed fiscal year 2021 budget request of more than $700 billion for the Department of Defense. A total of $841 million of that is dedicated toward investments in artificial intelligence.

Why would the military be looking into artificial intelligence?

Machine learning is everywhere these days. From “smart assistants” performing customer service tasks online to “robot vacuums” that learn the most efficient routes for cleaning your home, artificial intelligence is more common that you think.

Artificial intelligence is also a major part of military technology. The government established the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in 2018 to “advance the development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and associated technologies” on behalf of U.S. national security. The Pentagon’s controversial Project Maven already uses machine-learning algorithms to identify suspected terrorists in video clips.

It’s easy to imagine future applications of artificial intelligence in the military—whether on behalf of our military or that of another country.

You’ve no doubt heard of “unmanned combat aerial vehicles” (commonly called drones) which can be used to identify targets and kill without putting a human pilot in harm’s way. Right now, these are controlled by humans who decide when a drone should use its weapon.

But according to many experts, that human decision-making process might not always be required. The technology to combine artificial intelligence with drone warfare is a distinct possibility right now. In other words, it’s possible that facial recognition and decision-making AI could together form a lethal weapon that can target and kill without human involvement.

In other words: killer robots. This 2019 article paints a grim picture:

A conquering army wants to take a major city but doesn’t want troops to get bogged down in door-to-door fighting as they fan out across the urban area. Instead, it sends in a flock of thousands of small drones, with simple instructions: Shoot everyone holding a weapon. A few hours later, the city is safe for the invaders to enter.

This sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. But the technology to make it happen is mostly available today — and militaries worldwide seem interested in developing it.

China has already experimented with adding artificial intelligence and automation to cruise missiles.

An existential threat to humanity

This worries scientists and engineers who are working on practical uses for the technology. In fact, a number of leading researchers think artificial intelligence could be one of the biggest existential threats facing our planet. Hundreds have called for a ban on lethal autonomous robots.

Elon Musk—who himself has invested in artificial intelligence—has said we need to be very careful in developing the technology and described it as “summoning the demon” and has described it as more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

In 2014, the famous physicist Stephen Hawking warned that AI could bring about the end of the human race.

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The major risk I see is the militaries of the world getting into an AI arms race. Let’s say one military power—like China or the U.S.—begins developing AI weapons. Then every other major nation tries to keep up. Before long, autonomous weapons will be everywhere. They’ll be sold on the black market and programmed to perform assassinations based on facial recognition technology.

Or it could be even worse. In an explanation about AI and machine learning, the online publication Vox offers this possibility:

Here’s one scenario that keeps experts up at night: We develop a sophisticated AI system with the goal of, say, estimating some number with high confidence. The AI realizes it can achieve more confidence in its calculation if it uses all the world’s computing hardware, and it realizes that releasing a biological superweapon to wipe out humanity would allow it free use of all the hardware. Having exterminated humanity, it then calculates the number with higher confidence.

In other words, computers aren’t originally programmed to be hostile to humans. Instead, they are programmed to be efficient. As they grow more sophisticated and take actions to achieve a goal, humans could get in the way.

That’s the risk of artificial intelligence.

AI and the Antichrist

But I see an even greater risk. A 2019 survey found that one in four Europeans want artificial intelligence to make policy decisions for their countries. They believe machines may be able to make more objective decisions than human leaders.

Which makes me wonder: could artificial intelligence have anything to do with the Antichrist?

I’ve heard a number of Bible prophecy teachers pose a form of this question. They wonder if the Antichrist could end up being a human-computer hybrid who can project himself as an avatar all over the world, in a lifelike form that humans trust.

It’s not hard to see some of this thinking in passages like Revelation 13, which describes the Antichrist.

He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.—Revelation 13:13-15

Could this form of deception be technological in nature? Could it be fueled by artificial intelligence? Could the Antichrist have a human form but lack a soul? Or could Satan use AI as a way to control humanity through “the image of the beast”?

2 Thessalonians 2:3 describes the Antichrist as “the man of sin” and “the son of perdition.” As I’ve written previously, I believe the Antichrist is an adult male who is living right now on Earth.

But I’ll also be the first to state that, while I’m confident in the things I teach and preach, I’m not God. I don’t know the exact details of the future. I believe the wisest approach is to point to what the Bible says and consider the signs and evidence of Bible prophecy as it is fulfilled.

That means I’m open to the possibility that today’s advanced technology could play a major role in the events of the end times. Obviously, the Apostle Paul would not have been able to dream of things like smartphones, satellites, or artificial intelligence. Inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy about the last days, Paul might have understood the Antichrist to be a literal man—but does that remove the possibility that the “man” could actually be an artificial human?

I’m willing to consider that question.

The Antichrist will definitely be a worldwide leader who “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped.” As big a role as technology plays in our lives, I can distinctly imagine a world in which our faith in technology supplants our faith in God.

AI may bring a number of advantages to our modern lives, from technology like Siri and Alexa to self-driving cars.

But like every part of our lives, we need to be prepared for the potential risks of new technologies. We need to keep our eyes open for ways we might be deceived. We need to keep our focus on God’s Word. As I wrote in Tipping Point, “don’t let human technology distract you from God’s superiority.”

Wherever our technology takes us, God has known about these things from the beginning.

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