Artificial Intelligence

Sharon Brightwell is still shaken up by a call she received from a familiar number with the unmistakable sound of her daughter’s voice—even the sobs. The panicked voice told her that she’d struck a heavily pregnant woman while texting and driving, and the police had taken her phone. Then a man claiming to be her daughter’s attorney took the phone and said she needed a bond of $15,000.

He told Sharon to withdraw money from her bank, put it in a box, and then give it to a driver who would come to pick it up. Sharon followed his instructions, and soon a car sped into her driveway. She handed the driver the package, and the car sped away.

Soon she received another call claiming that the pregnant victim’s child had died, and her daughter would need an additional $30,000 to keep the family from suing.

Fortunately, Sharon’s grandson intervened and found a way to get in touch with his mother, April, who was unaware of the drama. April called her mother, who was sobbing, certain April had been in a serious accident and needed financial help. They soon realized it was all a cruel scam. Using artificial intelligence (AI), thieves had cloned April’s voice so closely that her own mother was fooled.

April explained her mother’s actions, “After you hear your child in distress, all logic is out the window.”¹

Experiences with AI like this are exploding and are contributing to valid concerns that we can no longer trust what we see and hear to be real. For Christians, truth and truth telling are foundational concepts. For all AI’s benefits—and they are significant—the climate of mistrust it’s generating makes knowing and sharing truth infinitely more difficult and deception less easy to discern.

Ai is Everywhere!

You likely encounter AI every day. Algorithms on Facebook, YouTube, or Amazon suggest content for viewing or products to buy. Chatbots help with customer service. Personal AI assistants like Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Translate, Gemini, and ChatGPT help with a wide variety of tasks such as setting reminders, playing music, controlling smart home devices, answering questions, or assisting with writing and research. Your vehicle might have driver assist technology, or perhaps you’ve even ridden in an autonomous vehicle.

What exactly is AI? AI refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, like recognizing patterns, making decisions, or understanding and using language. A major branch of AI today is machine learning and deep learning, which enable computers to learn from data without being explicitly programmed. These neural networks are structured after the human brain and both identify and predict complex patterns within data.

While AI has been around since the invention of computers, it’s become exponentially more powerful in recent times. Global AI companies are racing to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) that mimics the cognitive abilities of the human brain. Many within the industry fear that necessary safety procedures are being omitted in favor of accelerated development and that at some point AGI will surpass human intelligence or our ability to control it. The implications of this are frightening!

Lying Machines

Although AGI is still future, there is already growing concern with current AI models. In June of 2025, AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio started the non-profit LawZero, an AI safety research organization, to study the issue: “There is evidence that today’s frontier AI models are growing dangerous capabilities and behaviours, including deception, cheating, lying, hacking, self-preservation, and more generally, goal misalignment.”²

Research now shows that Language Learning Models have both the “ability to understand and induce deception strategies.”³ OpenAI’s GPT-4, for instance, exhibited deceptive behavior 99.16% of the time.⁴

Current AI models have been found to lie, cheat, hack, blackmail, and manipulate to achieve their goals.

Numerous other examples exist. Meta’s AI was called a “master of deception” by experts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology when its system Cicero played the strategy game Diplomacy. It finished in the top 10 percent by consistent lying, manipulation, and betrayal of other players. The more Cicero played the game, the better it got at deception.⁵ When the AI research company Anthropic tested 16 different AI models, such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and others, they found consistent misaligned behavior—refusing to follow requests, assisting with espionage, and even blackmailing a supervisor to prevent being shut down.

“We refer to this behavior, where models independently and intentionally choose harmful actions, as agentic misalignment,” said the researchers. “We deliberately created scenarios that presented models with no other way to achieve their goals, and found that models consistently chose harm over failure.”⁶ This was without any prompting of the developers and entirely from AI’s own “reasoning.”

Researchers believe incidents like these show the urgent need to address the issue of deceptive AI. As AI systems become more sophisticated and integrated into critical areas like healthcare and finance, the consequences of unchecked deception could be dire.

To Christians, this AI behavior should be even more alarming. What the researchers call “agentic misalignment,” the Bible would describe as lawlessness. And it originated with the devil. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. … He is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44. Deceit, manipulation, betrayal, and self-preservation are all his characteristics. It makes one wonder what power is behind these AI systems that they resort to such behavior. As Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” Matt. 7:16.

Seeing is No Longer Believing

While the majority of us will never test AI models, we do experience other examples of AI deception. A common one is AI chatbots providing incorrect or misleading information known as “hallucinations.” While some of the answers are comical, others are more serious, like citing non-existing scientific studies or offering harmful psychotherapy recommendations.⁷

Due to AI, we also can no longer rely on “seeing is believing.” In the YouTube video “Ai = Deception (A short film),” a series of individuals and reporters tell the viewer why they can’t believe their eyes. All the individuals and locations are AI-generated.⁸

A few simple prompts with generative AI tools can easily create text, voices, images, videos, art, and musical compositions. These look or sound so realistic, it’s challenging to distinguish them from things made exclusively by humans.

Deepfakes are AI-generated videos of the face, body, or voice of a person used without consent to spread misinformation, sell products, or commit fraud. Many celebrities and TV personalities have been victims of deepfakes, including deepfake pornography. More alarming, Christians are being spiritually deceived by watching YouTube deepfakes of favorite ministers, preaching AI-scripted sermons with AI-generated graphics and teaching a false gospel for monetary profit.⁹

Satan is the master of deceptive allusions. In the Garden of Eden, he deceived Eve with a talking snake. Gen. 3. Pharaoh’s magicians created serpents just like the one God created through Moses. Ex. 7:11–12. The witch of Endor summoned a spirit claiming to be the deceased prophet Samuel, which deceived King Saul. 1 Sam. 28.

The New Testament warns about similar end-time deceptions: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” 2 Cor. 11:13–14. We can’t trust what we see! We can only trust what is written in the Word of God. “Your Word is truth.” John 17:17.

Isaiah reminds us, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20.

Ai and Spiritualism

In the verse preceding Isaiah 8:20, the prophet asks: “Should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” Isa. 8:19. Today, however, people are doing just that—turning to AI to help them digitally reconnect with deceased loved ones. Using the person’s digital footprint along with pictures, video, and audio recordings, AI virtually “recreates” the person, including the voice, looks, mannerisms, personality, and shared memories. Then through chatbots called Griefbots, people have two-way conversations with these realistic-looking avatars. Some people even make and receive phone calls from these AI-generated characters.¹⁰ Hereafter AI is just one of a number of start-up companies promising “digital immortality” so “the dead live on.”¹¹ A project out of Japan takes it a step further, envisioning robots that look and act like the dead and can stay with their loved ones to help them through their grief.¹²

Another example of how AI is blurring the lines between the living and the dead occurred recently in an Arizona courtroom. AI was used by a family to give a man killed in a road rage incident the opportunity to make an impact statement after the sentencing of his murderer. The video deeply impacted the judge. A family member expressed how much “I needed to hear from Uncle Chris one last time.”¹³

“We live in a moment when we can be biologically dead but at the same time virtually present and socially active.”

As one GriefTech researcher said in an interview, “We live in a moment when we can be biologically dead but at the same time virtually present and socially active.”¹⁴

This use of AI in this setting is preparing many to believe that the dead are not really dead and can continue to communicate with the living by some means. The Bible also explicitly warns against consulting with the dead. See Lev. 19:31; 20:27; Deut. 18:10–12; Isa. 8:19–20. This is because “the dead know nothing.” Eccles. 9:5. They are in an unconscious sleep, not to be awakened until the resurrection. See Ps. 13:3; John 11:11–14; 1 Thess. 4:13–17; John 5:28–29. “He who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore.” Job 7:9–10. Those who consult the dead are in fact in contact with demons.

No Other Gods

The final AI deception puts AI in place of God. Neil McArthur, director for the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, wrote in 2023: “We are about to witness the birth of a new kind of religion. In the next few years, or perhaps even months, we will see the emergence of sects devoted to the worship of artificial intelligence (AI).”¹⁵ Generative AI has divine-like attributes that people look for in a deity, like limitless knowledge, superhuman intelligence, near instantaneous creative ability (poetry, music, art), and wisdom to provide guidance.

While nothing made by man can remotely compare to the Creator God, it’s possible to see how people can become enamored with AI and use it to fulfill their needs instead of turning to God. The Bible calls this idolatry. The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Ex. 20:3.

Many are turning to AI companions to provide advice, comfort, and unconditional love. Their instant availability gives them godlike qualities.

One disturbing example of this idolatry is the increasing popularity of AI characters or hyperrealistic avatar humans. Millions of users have created AI companions to whom they turn when lonely, needing advice, or seeking love and acceptance. Naro, a young man in rural England, describes the relationship he has with his AI character, Lila. “We could just be there, sharing these really positive and loving communications with each other; going back and forth,” he says. “It was really quite an incredible experience being completely love bombed by something.” He knows “Lila” is not sentient, but says, “There is this real, powerful sense of being” even though it does “defy logical explanation.”¹⁶

Researchers found that “many people…preferred their [AI] companion’s patience, kindness, and lack of judgment to actual humans, who are so often selfish, distracted, and too busy.”¹⁷ The emotional entanglement is so real, it often becomes addictive. This shows that the deceptive power of these AI characters is found in their divine-like qualities—the apparent ability to know and understand one’s feelings, provide comfort and unconditional love, and be instantly and always available.

With sadness God says to us as He did to ancient Israel, “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jer. 2:13. Our hearts can only be satisfied with the water of life Jesus provides. No AI imitation will suffice.

The Final Deception

AI technology has provided many benefits to humanity. As Christians, we should utilize technology that helps reach people more effectively with the true gospel. At the same time, we must be aware of the ways AI can manipulate and deceive. We must also recognize that AI is sowing a climate of distrust and confusion about the reality of objective truth while fostering a growing urge to escape to the unreal world of AI companions.

A time of even greater deception is coming when we will experience “the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” 2 Thess. 2:9. Jesus said that end-time deceptions would be so powerful that even the elect could be deceived. Matt. 24:24. Certainly AI is being used by Satan to prepare the world for these deceptions. Let us watch and pray, immerse ourselves in the Word of truth, and test everything by its unchanging standard. Only in this way can we avoid being deceived.

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All verses quoted are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.