AI Will Never Generate a Soul

You can ask AI to come up with a sermon illustration. It’ll take less than 10 seconds, and you’ll likely get a few options that are decent. At first, you’re impressed. Then it can leave you unsettled. The AI has generated a story about real life, but it’s not real life. AI can generate many aspects and outputs of human life, but AI will never generate a soul.

We’re living in a world that can manufacture almost anything now. A song, an essay, a face or a voice that looks and sounds exactly like the real thing. Maybe even like a friend or a loved one.

AI can write your conversation, curate your feed, and hand you a version of yourself that looks extremely convincing. And in a way, it’s remarkable, but it also feels kind of scary. This is because there’s an underlying worry that we’re heading towards a future where everything can be faked.

Why AI Will Never Generate a Soul

Thankfully, we cling to a truth that was written long before AI. Genesis tells us God formed us from the dust and breathed His own life into us (Genesis 2:7). We weren’t generated. We were created, on purpose, by Someone who wanted us here.

That truth should change how we see ourselves. An algorithm can study a million faces and attributes of human beings, then produce a convincing one. And yet, it can’t fall in love with or be devoted to any of them.

Depending on the prompts, it might sound like it cares and commits. That is, until you run out of software credits, the batteries on the device die, or you have a power outage. Then the jig is up. There isn’t actually any relational power in those prompts.

AI may sound like it’s consoling you, but it can’t grieve with you as a friend can. It might generate a written prayer for you, but it can’t lay hands on you and pray over you. These are acts of love that belong to people who carry the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

Even a humanoid robot using AI software won’t be a match because it’s missing the deeper level that makes us human: the soul.

The Pressure to Fake Being You

When using AI tools and software, there will always be a temptation to curate a version of yourself for everyone to see. It can start with a filtered photo or caption that contains a half-truth. Perhaps it’s a personality you pitch for one group and trade out for another.

In the end, it’s not worth it. Managing a fake image will become exhausting, even with AI to help you. And the truth is, no one wants it anyway. Your friends and contacts want the real you, even the imperfect parts.

In an increasingly synthetic world, people are craving what’s authentic.

You don’t have to generate a better version of the person God created in you. He’s not interested in the polished version. He only desires the person He made in His image.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)