Posted on: 24th September 2026

AI and Who am I?

There has been much discussion in the media recently concerning AI, particularly the possibility that it could have the power to destroy the human race. The day after I started writing this blog, King Charles convened a meeting of AI leaders in Scotland emphasising its dangers and a few days later it is now on the agenda of a meeting of the United Nations in New York.  Charles said “The development of AI-it’s substance and its pace are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure…the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands and being used in potentially catastrophic ways should be urgently considered…” Scientists are now talking of Super AI (SAI) which is unpredictable and this could be developed in less than ten years, hence the concern.

In a recent interview with Sam Altman (Dragon’s Den fame), John Lennox (renowned Christian apologist) spoke of AI promoting the notion of transhumanism (going beyond the human).  He referred to Yuval Noah Harari (an Israeli Oxford professor) and his book ‘Homo Deus’ (the man God).  Lennox suggested that scientists are speaking of the merging between the humans and machines with two main purposes in mind, firstly to solve the problem of physical death and secondly to increase human happiness through the bioengineering of mechanical implants. 

This raises existential questions, who am I?  Who are we? What does it mean to be human?

Whilst the advance of AI can help us enormously with technological progress in many areas of our lives, for which I’m grateful, certain aspects of it can be seen to be dehumanising in so far as we understand what it means to be human. However, it does give us an opportunity for discussion. As Lennox also pointed out the first and obvious thing to realise is that AI is artificial, it’s not real and lacks consciousness, ‘the genius of God is that he has linked intelligence with consciousness’. Here are a few things that AI will never be able to do, described as qualia, the raw feel of something, perception of beauty, the smell of coffee, empathy with suffering, the experience love; it cannot replace friendship or fellowship between human beings; AI knows nothing of values, it is not concerned with morality: it cannot have a relationship with God.

The creator of the universe, way beyond the capabilities of Super AI, has demonstrated what it means to be truly human. We need not look any further than the life, teachings (especially the Sermon on the Mount), death and resurrection of Jesus to see a profound demonstration of this. Perhaps we can step up much more in conversations when issues regarding AI are raised and explore with others the uniqueness of being human. Rather than AI being used to try and make humans gods, we can point to God who became flesh and blood, in order bring us into the fullness of what it means to be human “The Word became a human being and full of grace and truth lived among us…” John 1v 14 (Good News Translation)

                                                                                     Paul Lancaster (Hope for the Nations)