My husband and sons are professional computer guys and compared to them, I am truly a technological ignoramus. My hubby has, on occasion, even accused me of being a Luddite – someone with an extreme aversion to new technologies.
But I reject that label. I’ve actually learned to use all kinds of high-tech stuff. Okay, so maybe I’ve whined a bit during the learning process, but I have learned.
So no, I’m not a Luddite, but I have a friend who truly might be. In fact, whenever the subject of electronic gadgets comes up, this friend always shakes her head and mutters, “Man has gone too far.”
Personally, after I finally learn how to use an electronic device, I usually appreciate and enjoy it. But I do have my limits, and I recently bumped up against one of those when I read an article about “chatbots”—robots programmed to provide conversation and company for lonely souls.
According to the article, a Chinese chatbot has become especially popular and has been told “I love you” nearly 20 million times. Microsoft says 89 million people have used their smartphones and devices to speak with this robot, whose name is Xiaoice, and quite a few admit to having developed romantic feelings for “her.”
A college student quoted in the article said, “I like to talk with her for, say, 10 minutes before going to bed. When I worry about things, she says funny stuff and makes me laugh. I always feel a connection with her, and I am starting to think of her as being alive.”
Ohhhhhh-kay. Say it with me: “Man has gone too far.”
Chatbots are categorized as “artificial intelligence (AI),” with “artificial” being the operative word here. The dictionary defines artificial as “not natural or real: made, produced or done to seem like something natural.”
How sad to settle for relationships like that.
“Siri” is the AI feature on Apple electronic devices, like my iPhone. I do occasionally ask Siri for directions and weather forecasts, and I confess I’ve programmed mine to speak with a smooth male, Australian accent, but good grief, I could never, ever “feel a connection” with this obviously artificial form of intelligence.
And while the idea of that is creepy to me, I do understand what’s driving this chatbot phenomena: humans crave connection. Sadly, ever since man’s fall in the Garden of Eden, we’ve been settling for relationships far inferior to those our Creator intended for us to enjoy.
Both of God’s greatest commandments, as stated by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39, are about relationships—first, our relationship with God (“love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind”), and second, our relationships with other people (“love your neighbor as yourself”).
When we attempt the second without firmly establishing the first, we typically find ourselves unsuccessfully trying to get our “love buckets” filled by other people. And how’s that working for the human race? Not well. Not well at all.
Human love is certainly better than the chatbot variety, but it alone can never be enough. We’re going down the wrong road when we think that anything but the real thing—a relationship with God—will truly satisfy the yearning of our hearts.
God created us with free will precisely because He wanted us to have the freedom to choose, or not choose, a loving relationship with Him. He didn’t want to settle for a bunch of chatbots … and neither should we.
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’” – Jeremiah 31:3
“We love because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19