Who is afraid of AI?

The tripartite partners of government — employers, workers and professional practitioners — are collectively disturbed by the swiftness and scope of AI breaking into the human space.

Today, AI or Artificial Intelligence is a much-feared force, often portrayed as capable of replacing humans altogether. It is much talked about, over-analyzed, and battered to death from its modest beginning in 1940 with Alan Turing and raised to new heights in 1950 by the acknowledged father of AI, John McCarthy, a computer and cognitive scientist and a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA.

Although Christian theology holds that technology must serve humanity, not dominate it, AI threatens humankind despite this doctrinal assurance that God’s creation and purpose for humanity cannot be replaced by machines.

This core of Christian philosophy, Imago Dei, Latin for the image of God, is the basic Christian doctrine that says humanity will have complete dominion over God’s creations, a teaching that echoes throughout Scripture and is anchored on the opening chapter of Genesis.

AI therefore must be regarded as a tool to help mankind, not to replace him in the earthly order.

Yet, science persistently challenges the wisdom and power of God by inventing life-giving and life-changing innovations such as cloning, DNA and genetic unlocking of the code of life, stem cell therapy, organ transplants, fountain of youth pills, computer science, robotics, and lately and most significantly AI, to mention a few.

Among the discoveries of science AI poses the most urgent, complex, unstoppable, threatening, and perilous invention because of its velocity and reach faster than the capability of society to adapt. The danger is not having machines that think like humans but in humans surrendering judgment, responsibility, and morality to machines.

AI is regarded with deep apprehension by those impacted by its application, like workers in almost all traditional jobs in industries that are described by the Japanese as kitanai, kiken, kitsui (dirty, dangerous, demeaning), desk workers, contractors, and professionals such as lawyers, prosecutors, judges, surgeons, educators, architects, politicians, religious leaders, to mention a few.

AI now performs most functions with a level of accuracy, consistency, and speed unmatched by humans.

While hopes are expressed that new jobs will be created by AI-driven technology to replace vulnerable jobs, the threat to livelihoods is happening here and now.

History offered no comfort when the Industrial Revolution eliminated countless artisan trades, but it also birthed entire industries that employed millions.

AI is expected to follow the same pattern. While it will replace certain tasks, it will also generate new categories of work in various fields we cannot yet imagine.

The real challenge then is not the arrival of AI but our readiness to adapt by upskilling and reskilling workers under the collaborative efforts of the tripartite partners.

So, “who is afraid of AI?” becomes rhetorical. Fear loses its grip when society prepares itself—through education, ethical stewardship, and cooperation—to embrace the new digital reality, not as a threat to our humanity, but as an opportunity to deepen and expand it.

Our real task is to shape AI as a technology that will serve our creativity, values, and purpose. No matter how powerful our tools become, the dignity of the human person is non-negotiable.

The future will be determined not by algorithms but by the choices we make today.