The Church, Science and AI

The academic rhythm here at Oxford is relentless in the best way possible.

This past week, I’ve had the privilege of attending lectures that felt like a bridge between centuries. At the Oxford Union, I listened to an insider advisor to the Pope who had flown in from Rome to discuss the intersection of AI, intelligence, and the Church.

Just days later, I was in an engineering conference hearing about the possibility of creating an AI model of Sir Isaac Newton’s entire body of work, every notebook, letter, and scribbled thought.

As someone who spends my days sifting through Newton’s work for my own research, the idea is fascinating. But as a trainer dedicated to human potential, it raised a massive red flag.

We are currently obsessed with the efficiency of AI. We talk about the data, the speed, and occasionally the environmental impact. But we aren’t talking enough about the psychological impact of outsourcing our intelligence to entities that do not process information the way humans do.

Historically, we have always looked for an external locus of control. For a long time, it was the Church. Then, the pendulum swung toward Science. Now, it’s shifting toward the Machine. Recent studies have highlighted the prevalence of “lying” and deep-seated bias within LLM models.

These machines don’t seek truth; they predict what you want to hear based on how you phrase the question. If we allow them to become the “authority,” we aren’t just saving time; we are relinquishing the power of our own minds.

The true gift of being human is our ability to contemplate paradox and use our own discernment to decide what is right or wrong for our lives. These tools are magnificent when they inform us, but they are dangerous when they direct us. Otherwise, we aren’t really living our lives. We are living a version of life directed by an outside authority, a pattern that has been repeating since time immemorial.

As you move through your week, I invite you to reflect on these questions:

Where in your life have you unconsciously handed over your “thinking” to an external source? Are you using technology to expand your capabilities, or is it slowly replacing your willingness to trust your own intuition? What would happen if you reclaimed the ultimate authority over your own choices today?

Warmly,

gina 🙂