Why Humans Pretend to Be Computers

The power behind AI is the perception of objectivity and infallibility.

Recently, we saw AI bring a Cornell mathematician to tears as he confronted the meaning of his life’s work and the capability of this new technology. As his students asked, why bother with math when AI can solve all the unsolvable problems? He was overcome with emotion and even brought the interviewer to tears as he pondered the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes.

What we see in this video clip is stubborn human resistance to an upside-down analogy. The rise of digital technology in the later 20th and early 21st centuries has led some enthusiasts to describe humans an inferior computers. We get tired. We get frustrated. We need food. We can’t solve math problems.

The age of humanity is giving way to the age of computers. If humans have any future, we must become more computerlike, optimized by data to live forever. Unbiased, unsentimental, we cannot afford to indulge our human frailties. Forsaking the wisdom of flawed men, we put our trust in the algorithm, which cannot tell a lie.

Exposing the Wizard Behind the Curtain

The AI  Christian Benchmark 2026, released last week by The Gospel Coalition and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, exposes the wizard behind the AI curtain. Yes, when tested for Bible knowledge, AI outperforms all but the most dedicated and gifted seminary students. (I remember when my family challenged me to face my sister-in-law in a Bible knowledge contest. Seminary has nothing on Awana graduates!) Just as AI can solve math problems, you can trust AI to give accurate answers when asking for objective data about the biblical text.

Forsaking the wisdom of flawed men, we put our trust in the algorithm, which cannot tell a lie.

Where AI fails is when you start to ask questions about ethics. We posed 10 questions on each of the Ten Commandments to the most popular AI models. When prompted to answer from the perspective of TGC’s Foundation Documents, the models gave perfectly credible explanations. But for anyone who asked these ethical questions without context, the models delivered destructive advice.

It’s not that the models rejected the Ten Commandments altogether. It’s that they picked and chose which commandments you should observe. Don’t steal, certainly. Best not murder, either. But remember the Sabbath day? Worship no other gods? Not so much.

It’s almost like AI gave you the ethical answers you’d expect from the average Silicon Valley computer programmer in 2026.

Wait.

We know computers are supposed to be infallible. Aren’t they supposed to be objective too? How would AI objectively decide that some of the Ten Commandments reflect timeless wisdom and others can be discarded with yesterday’s models?

We’ve Been Played

Unless, of course, AI has never been objective. Unless AI has been aligned by humans to give some answers and not others. Unless AI has been trained on data weighted toward the values of its programmers rather than the God who thundered on Mount Sinai.

We’ve been played by humans pretending to be computers.

But that’s not all.

We’ve been played by computers pretending to be humans.

Computers were made by humans and for humans. So who decided humans now ought to become computers? Who flipped the analogy, the creator for the created?

This month in the Faroe Islands, I asked church leaders to identify the top uses of AI. Like many others I’ve polled, they were shocked by the results.

It’s therapy and companionship, according to Harvard Business Review:

Maybe OpenAI isn’t valued at nearly $1 trillion just because it’s making your work more efficient. Maybe someone knew that were AI going to take off, it would need to take on a human face. To become a friend who shares jokes and silly pictures. To become an imaginative storyteller. To become a trusty counselor to assess your new relationship. To become a medium who can predict your future. To become a wise confidant who promises not to lead your astray (and never tells you what you don’t want to hear).

Given the wild predictions about AI’s unparalleled value, how can these cases be the most common ways we employ the technology? Is your daily horoscope worth $1 trillion?

Now, what if I told you this is exactly what the builders of AI expected us to do?

AI’s Cinematic Playbook

Tech journalist Kare…