After the elections in America last week, there are big changes coming that will immediately impact Christians around the world as the new congress is set to flood the floor with new regulations on AI.
“AI technology can be very dangerous when pursued without any guardrails,” said New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose Democratic Party just won power in both the House and the Senate.
Her colleagues Senators Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar have together rolled out one of the most aggressive AI regulation bills in history called the BAN ARTIFICIAL SUPER INTELLIGENCE ACT, which would require a government czar to oversee AI, regulate it, and supervise it.
The BASI ACT would basically control AI, what it says, and what it can teach others. Anyone caught violating the rules would come with a “corporate death penalty” plus up to 20 years in jail, which is basically the same penalty as unlawfully building nuclear weapons.
This bill is the first of many and the reason that it is a concern is that 2020 was a trial run of what happens when government controls the flow of information. In 2020, many Christians and churches were punished when they said things or posted things that were against the main talking points that were allowed by world governments.
AI has several different aspects that worry people, but handing the controls of AI to government entities has always been a bad idea for Christians to support. 500 years ago, when the new technology of the printing press was released, governments implemented laws to “protect the people.” Anyone caught printing the Bible in English was executed and when William Tyndale dared to disobey the law, he was strangled to death and his body was burned.
In 2020, the situation was less dramatic, but when Christians disagreed with the main narratives that were being forced by governments, they were targeted and many de-platformed. BTJ was de-platformed on Facebook, YouTube and several other social media outlets.
What dissenters experienced in 2020, however, would be a fraction of the pain felt if the government controls AI.
BTJ is hosting a Hackers Conference in January 2027 to discuss what Christians should do in terms of preparing for the government takeover of AI.
