AI Idolatry and Magical Thinking

Author

Ken Arnold

Published

October 7, 2025

Their idols are silver and gold,
    the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
    eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
    noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
    feet, but do not walk;
    and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
    so do all who trust in them.

Psalm 115:4-8 ESV

Beware of worshiping AI.

(I’m mostly going to talk about LLM-powered chatbots here, but the same concepts could apply to other systems.)

It sounds ridiculous on its face, but think about whether you’ve noticed any of the following thought patterns in yourself or others:

Lift up your eyes

The problem with these thoughts isn’t that they’re wrong. In fact most of those thoughts are grounded in evidence, and I recommend reading all of the articles I linked to.

The problem is that they put AI in a place where only God belongs.

God made a world that’s rich yet deeply orderly. Learning even some of the order enables rich capabilities. All our technology, including AI, works because of this orderly diversity. But God’s purpose in creating this order was to reveal himself.

So lift up your eyes beyond the technology, to Him who made it all and sustains it to show off himself.

Seek God the wonderful counselor before, during, and after using any AI.

Credit him–not AI–for any insights.

Desire his honor and kingdom first.