"Thus saith the Lord . . .

Now that I have your attention, bear with me as I process through a stream-of- consciousness debate that has been unsettling my thoughts for a week.

According to AI, the exact phrase "Thus saith the Lord" appears 413-415 times in the Old Testament. A remarkable number it seems to me, if we can believe AI is correct. I don't know about you, but I wonder, am skeptical, and am often dubious when the easy answer pops up before anything else when I pose any question. So be it. There are backup sources to consult, and I would feel remiss for not looking deeper. In this case, the variations from one Bible version to another skew the results. So, I will take AI on face value for this ramble.

If we lived in Old Testament days, there's a remote chance we might have been within earshot of those powerful words: "Thus saith the Lord". Whoa! Think about that for a minute. The voice heard would have been either a booming one or a whispering one. I think the former when it comes to such a strong statement saying: "Listen up people"!

What if the great and powerful AI (OZ) were confronted with those words the way the prophets of Old were long before we created AI? Would AI have the answer to an omniscient, omnipresent force? Might that be the final word, so to speak? Or, would AI step up its game to meet that force with its force?

To be clear, I do not think these are equal forces, but given the times in which we live, AI has begun to rule as a powerful force. In the 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" the all-powerful computer aboard the space craft, named HAL, goes rogue making decisions not programmed or even asked of it by the astronauts.* Sound familiar?

We might think of these sci-fi-like stories as humans vs machines. But, if these man-made machines can outsmart its maker, can the "Maker" call out AI with those words that echo back to the OT? Imagine a moment when AI says, as HAL does: "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that", being met with a response: "Thus saith the Lord"? Then what?

Of course, I do not have the answer, but wrestling with the question is not a waste of time because whether you believe in AI or the Lord, or both, or neither, most humans have the tools to reckon with the questions of our time, and that seems to be where we are right now.

Have we created Frankenstein's monster? I still remember how that movie freaked me out as a child. When the monster comes to life, its creator says he knows what it feels like to be God. The parallels to AI are easy: The monster goes out into the world and wreaks havoc--AI is out in the world threatening to wreak havoc, according to the creators.

I am no longer naive like that young girl, believing whatever I see on a screen, but these days, I am listening for that other phrase that appears some 300 times in the Bible: "Fear not".

*https://youtu.be/ARJ8cAGm6JE?si=9-0225WhAZNcA1v_&t=3