A flood of misinfo and AI-automated spam is coming your way, what will you do?
In defense of being watchful
Are you ready for the misinformation and deception overload? It’s coming.
We’re already in the midst of a strange time where reality is easily faked. AI mimics what is real in a time when humans already can't agree on the basics of things like biology let alone deeper questions of spiritual truth. Like Dallas Willard famously said, we don’t know our up from down. But it’s more than a psychological or spiritual struggle, it’s also becoming sensory.
This week, Nikita Bier, the head of product at X made the following prediction: “In less than 90 days, all channels that we thought were safe from spam & automation will be so flooded that they will no longer be usable in any functional sense: iMessage, phone calls, Gmail. And we will have no way to stop it.”
How do we prepare for the onslaught? A few thoughts.
1. Recognize that you’re already in it.
If you live any part of your life online—consuming news, communicating on platforms with friends, scrolling to find deals, searching for love on a dating app—you know it’s important to be careful about what you click, what you share, and who you share it with.
As individuals we’re so very much in need of discernment in ways that former generations did not require.
You can’t open a banking app without being warned that banks don’t call or ask for passwords. There’s a level of online security and scam-awareness that’s baked into everyday life. In the same way we know not to leave our bags laying around at airports, we have generic awareness that threats abound online.
If you’re online or talk with people who go online, you’re in the midst of an ongoing battle to discern, and you're barraged by truth, half truths and nothing but the untruths.
Remembering that matters.
2. Go to sources of truth and curate truth-telling relationships.
I was struck last week as I listened to the Bible while I ran on the treadmill at a hotel gym. A passage in Matthew’s gospel poked at me all week. John the Baptist sent disciples to ask Jesus a terrible, vulnerable question:
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
Matthew 11:2
Remember, it was John who recognized Jesus as a child in his mother’s womb, leaping for joy when the two pregnant bellies of Elizabeth and Mary touched.
It was John who saw, along with the rest of the Israelites who came to the Jordan River, the Spirit descend like a dove to fall upon Jesus. It was John who submerged Jesus in the river, held his body beneath the surface of the water and raised him up in baptism.
John heard the booming, thunderous voice from Heaven declare, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”
John’s entire life depended upon the coming of Christ; John’s entire life was centred around preparing the way for Jesus in the culture.
When he was imprisoned by the scoundrel Herod in the days before his political assassination and religious martyrdom, John listened to the scamming voices lying and throwing shade on the truth. The doubt, fear, disappointment, confusion, and isolation of the prison cell birthed a question that must have burned like an ulcer.
I’m so grateful for this story. What a gift to have it in the scriptures.
There will be times when we question what we know is true. Times when we will question what we’ve seen with our own eyes. Times when the voices of doubt and cynicism get over-amplified and our hopes or expectations are under-realized.
Times when we'll need a reset in the truth.
John knew enough to go to Jesus. He couldn’t physically, so he sent trusted friends who could ask the desperate question that his entire life and purpose—his very identity—hinged upon.
Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Matthew 11:3-6
Don’t hesitate to go to Jesus. Even when you know you should know the answer.
3. Cultivate watchfulness and be on guard.
I don’t know about you, but returning to the simple truth, that big redemptive arc of history and the One at the centre of it, sort of clears the fog for me and puts things in perspective.
We live in a decadent culture. We tolerate pretty much anything. We’re comfortable to let people go to the great extremes of their desires, curated by algorithms, nurtured by clicks, enabled by echo chambers.
So much of what we're fed is slop. And it numbs us.
Jesus noted a progression later in Matthew that’s important for us to acknowledge. John wouldn’t be the only one who would question and need clarity about where to go to gut-check and pressure test his hopes.
The disciples would too. And so will anyone who would believe.
The most essential, important truths that shape us will be challenged by misinformation. And Matthew 23 and 24 lay that out. Go read it, it’s shocking.
The quick summary:
People and institutions meant to care for and nurture spiritual truth and health will be untrustworthy, locking people out of the kingdom of heaven because they themselves are not in it.1
People will come claiming to help and save us, and they’ll be convincing, but they’re actually deep fakes.
There will be so many moments when it seems that the end of time is upon us. So much so, that people could almost be numbed to the possibility since the latest epic sign of trouble didn’t bring forth the inevitable apocalypse.
Sounds about right, doesn’t it?
And yet, we can have every confidence, even in these times.
What sweet news it is that we have a counsellor and advocate in the Holy Spirit. Discernment is essential and is a super power in these times. We’re so blessed that it’s part of the package as believers.
Perhaps the most comforting words of Christ came in the days before he left the disciples. Words they clung to when they needed him most: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).
We are in the moment of need. A moment that calls for guidance into all truth. A moment where discerning what is true and right will be of critical importance so that we walk in the right pathways, through the right doors.
A deluge of misinformation and AI-automated spam is coming our way.
May we be ready for it. May we listen to and follow the true guide who can lead us through.
It is truly shocking to transcribe these words of Jesus from Matthew 23:13: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.'“
Excellent read. Thanks.
Thank you Andrew - I've been thinking this very thing. I'm off all social media now and find this peaceful. Realize that's not possible for artists that need to promote their work. More and more I'm going back to the truth in scripture and so grateful that we have been left with the Word - we need it more than ever. Thankful for your voice in the onslaught.