By Ricardo Márquez
The word “Babel” means “confusion.” The story of the Tower of Babel involves the decision by Noah’s descendants to build a tower that would reach the sky, “to become famous” and powerful, because everything could be controlled from “the sky.”
This complicated tale is full of symbolism that points to universal characteristics of human beings: arrogance and a lust for power. The project to build a tower to the sky resulted in a great confusion of languages, the loss of unity and the dispersion of a people.
Every day, we hear more about how artificial intelligence (AI) is the tool of the future that will be able to take us to “sky,” in other words, to take us further than we can imagine.
AI is the result of what happens when innumerable data (algorithms) are fed into a giant processor, which organizes it in such a way that it can yield information to solve complicated problems.
Today, we can ask Google, Chat GPT or “Pi” any question, and within moments we will receive a logical and convincing answer that combines the information stored in its processor.
Like any tool, we can use it to build or to destroy. AI has the advantage of offering us more information that we can hold in our brain to solve problems and find new solutions. It can be dangerous because, like all languages, it has the power to persuade, seduce and generate information that can be used to negatively manipulate outcomes.
It’s the first time in the history of humanity that we are facing a human-made, non-organic object capable of exceeding the organic capacities of our brain. It’s no longer the expression of God creating a human being in his image and likeness, like Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; now it’s the creation of a human being creating an object in its image and likeness, a robot.
If arrogance and a lust for power are the values guiding an AI medium, we should expect more of the confusion, polarization and division found in the story of the Tower of Babel.
The challenge is to use the benefits of this tool in the service of health, well-being, peace and justice. This requires us to make a conscious decision about our actions in all areas, private, community and social.
Even the tiniest action will have an impact if it’s guided by the values of the “Kingdom”: simplicity, humility, service to the needy, and solidarity. Whatever grows from our commitment to these values will be like wheat that grows next to weeds in our toxic culture.
Even as the arrogance of the power of AI becomes more famous, let’s keep betting on the mustard seed of the Good News that falls on fertile ground and grows with the grace of the Creator that inspires us, sustains us in hope and blesses our life.
Ricardo Márquez can be reached at marquez_muskus@yahoo.com.
