My view on AI

AI impact is too vast to cover in its entirety so I’ve only focused my thoughts related to the topics related to this website: the slow art of discovery and human connection.

Initially, I’m reminded of Richard Feynman's quote:

“To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.”

AI, like any powerful tool, holds immense potential – for good and for harm. And the complex challenge that we have is that we might proceed with perceived good intentions but end up causing irreparable harm.  This failure often stems not from malice, but from the simple, passive avoidance of the hard work necessary for ethical creation and maintenance.

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat Scott Peck’s quote again:

“Laziness is the opposite of love.”

This speaks to a passive failure of love, one that can hinder personal growth and spiritual development. I worry that AI, if misused, could deepen this passivity, as we outsource critical thinking and our own emotional language – especially in the creative arts, where my heart sinks seeing its impact.

The genesis of every powerful technology begins with a golden promise—to connect, to cure, to save time. Yet, the history of those tools is often a slow, mournful record of purpose bent and intention corrupted.  What golden promises there were have since turned to ash.

Every tool inherits the intentions of its makers. Code can be nudged, datasets can be tilted, outputs can be tuned to serve power rather than truth. That’s why we need not just clever engineers but accountable hearts and full transparency behind the technology.

Mobile phones have already become masters for many. AI is even more transformative, and with that comes a profound responsibility. The question isn’t just how we protect ourselves from AI – it’s how we protect ourselves from ourselves. We have free will, and through that creativity and freedom of expression. That’s something worth defending at all costs.

The message and the messenger

This website is the message, not me. If you feel the need to thank someone pay the kindness forward to the next person you meet.

Having a shift-in-perspective might change your inner world beyond recognition but doesn't change the wider world in any way. Good intentions done with haste can have disastrous consequences, remember patience is a great virtue, relax you have more time than you think, in time you'll learn when to act, when to pause and when to abandon your plans altogether – sometimes inaction can be more powerful than action. Use your head but follow your heart. Don't forget you can always try prayer if in doubt and should you so choose, the simple most common ones are often the best and the serenity prayer is one I’ve always liked.*

Sometimes you shouldn’t have higher aspirations – you should have deeper ones. The ego wants to be great… but the soul touched by something greater wants to serve.

* The Serenity Prayer in full by Reinhold Niebuhr

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Final Note on sustainable service: While the call to service is powerful, remember this vital wisdom: don't try to carry the weight of the world's problems on your shoulders. Focus on yourself and your dependants front and foremost, and trust that the rest will figure itself out. You can’t pour from an empty cup.