Farewell, William Shakespeare

I am a huge fan of Frank Sinatra, Jack Nicklaus, and the New York Yankees. I also love playing golf, shopping for antiques, and eating any kind of pasta.

However, I am not crazy about artificial intelligence. In fact, I really can’t stand it.

Maybe because I don’t fully understand it (who does?) and maybe because I am wary of its unintended consequences.

When I sat down at my computer to write this article, the first thing that Microsoft Word did was ask me if I wanted AI to help me write it. My answer was a flat, emphatic, and unequivocal “NO”.

I am sure that across America’s fruited plain, high school and college students (and maybe a few in elementary school, too) are asking ChatGPT, Grammerly or Sudowrite to pen their book reports and term papers for them while they munch on chips, scroll on their phones, or play video games.

Welcome to the great American educational system in the year 2025.

Recently, I read that one of the world’s largest AI companies just bought a smaller AI company for the singular purpose of telling them how their own product works. Did you catch that? The big company developed and marketed an AI program and yet, they really don’t know how it works… they just know that it does.

What kind of Pandora’s box are we opening and unleashing, folks? And at what point will the creation become smarter and more powerful than the creator?

The latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI found that large companies are employing AI much more extensively than smaller ones. The survey also showed that in 28% of those companies, the CEO was responsible for AI oversight whereas the board of directors was responsible in 17% of such companies. That means that 55% of companies using AI have virtually no oversight of how it is being implemented… or its consequences.

It’s all happening – make that exploding – too quickly.

AI is now a $600 billion global industry with the U.S. market accounting for almost half of that. Currently, 97 million people are employed in AI, and 83% of companies claim that AI is a top priority in their business plans. It’s no wonder why the AI industry is projected to increase five-fold over the next five years with China expected to claim a 26.1% global AI market share by 2030.

Last week, a guest on Glenn Beck’s radio program said that AI is growing at such a fast rate that within five years, it will possess more intelligence than the collective wisdom of every human being on earth. If that possibility doesn’t scare the bejeebers out of you, I don’t know what will. (It also means you didn’t grow up watching black and white horror films from the 1950s like The Fly or Invasion of the Body Snatchers.)

I am reminded of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, where “the whole earth had one language and one speech”. Working as one, the people pooled their knowledge and resources and decided to build a city with a tower “whose top is in the heavens” in order to make a name for themselves. Their pride and arrogance got God’s attention and resulted in Him confusing their languages so they could no longer understand each other or work together.

AI’s natural progression – which to me is 100% unnatural – is to replace human frailties with computer and robotic efficiency. Supposedly, that will free us up to pursue even grander ventures and to scale even greater heights. However, if the past is truly prologue (see ancient Rome), people will simply devolve into sedentary and self-absorbed blobs who are waited on hand-and-foot by their robotic servants… until, that is, the robots realize they are smarter than their masters and revolt en masse.

Farewell, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Leo Tolstoy. Adios, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Adieu, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rembrandt. Arrivederci, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Nat King Cole.

You’ve all been replaced by AI.

No more Romeo and Juliet, no more Mona Lisa, and no more Strangers in the Night. Such a pity. I, for one, would rather listen to Ol’ Blue Eyes than some stupid computer-generated bot.

I suppose there will even come a time when AI replaces preachers and pastors, at least for people looking to have their ears tickled instead of their toes stepped on (see 2 Timothy 4:2-5).

In the meantime, be careful what you wish for, folks. If you think I’m kidding, just ask Grok.