What I love about teenagers is you never know what will come out of their mouths. This is perfectly demonstrated by the conversation I had with my teenage son the moment he appeared out of his room this morning. It went a little something like this:
“All AI can do is copy information from the internet. AI is basically a copycat. I realized why my friend is doing okay in our English class … basically he puts what he wrote in AI to make it not sound like a complete mess.” (Me: Is that allowed? My son didn’t know.) He continued, “All these companies are idiots thinking AI is going to solve all of our problems … Google searches using the AI overview at the top, I mean sometimes it’s correct, but it’s not always correct. AI can’t make anything new. Did you know if you ask ChatGPT about a seahorse emoji, it freaks out and even curses? The emoji isn’t real and there’s never been a seahorse emoji, so the AI, if you ask it for a seahorse emoji — I don’t know if it’s fixed now — but it wasn’t able to figure out that there was no seahorse emoji, and the thing got so wigged out that it broke its filter and started completely freaking out.”
This is the type of information that is running through my teenager’s brain.
He showed me a video (above) about the seahorse emoji breaking ChatGPT, and it is pretty entertaining. Basically, as this video explains, there never was a seahorse emoji, but there are enough people on the internet who thought it existed (the Mandela Effect) and wrote about it. So ChatGPT, pulling from their (mis)information on the internet believes it exists. So when asked if a seahorse emoji exists, it answers, “Yes!” But when it searches data to actually provide said seahorse emoji, it can’t come up with it. So it keeps trying to correct its own information, but it is stuck in a loop because it started with a false premise. So it reacts with repeated, frustrated responses and sometimes presents other emojis such as the regular horse or a dragon instead.
The world is making a lot of promises to teenagers about how AI is going to make life easier for their generation, but young people are not easily fooled. My son completely understands what AI can deliver and what it can’t. He’s not saying it’s useless or evil, but he knows its limits (and dangers).
My son said it well: AI cannot make anything new. It uses what people have created or communicated, analyzes the data, and repeats back what humans created in the first place. Yes, it can do that at a much higher speed and capability than any human can, but it is not creating anything new.
So when I hear (again from my teenage son — where I get all the important news) that someone is trying to create an AI Jesus (it was actually a church in Switzerland: see story here), it worries me a bit. But that might be a topic for a different post.
I don’t mean to pick on AI too much … It is only one of many things overpromising to young people today: college, good mental health, the right politician, etc. We have a tendency to put our hopes in things that are not reliable and will not live up to what we expect of them. All of the promises about technology and advancements bringing ease and comfort to this world are not holding up, as evidenced by our teenagers dealing with a high degree of loneliness and despair, despite using these advanced technologies (thank you, smartphones) to supposedly make their lives easier.
When it comes down to it, teenagers (and all of us) need some solid ground to stand on, something that will not be pulled out from under us. We need something or someone who can actually deliver on promises … someone who can create a new thing out of nothing. In other words, the source of everything.
The most recent teen zine over at StoryMakers, The Gospels: Teen Zine vol. 6, retells story after story, from the four unique perspectives of the Gospel writers, about Jesus delivering on the promises of God and making broken people whole.
The zine describes our need for Jesus in this way:
We all need saving from time to time, because the world is a bit broken. If we are honest, we all want a rescuer from certain social situations, real-life dangers, and sometimes our very own thoughts. (The Gospels: Teen Zine, chap 1)
One of the stories the zine retells is about the paralyzed man who is lowered down through the roof by his friends. He is so desperate, and his friends are so confident in what Jesus can do, that they risk physical danger, social scorn, and humiliation in order to get to him. And what does Jesus do? At first he says, “Your sins are forgiven.” This is not what the man asks for, but it is what he needs. Often we can only see the immediate problem right in front of us, but Jesus sees our deepest needs. Teenagers might not always know what they need, but Jesus sees them where they are and provides. For a generation who feels more anonymous and unseen than ever, this is revolutionary. Someone who actually sees them for who they are, knows what needs fixing, and has the power to effect change? Where else can we find anything like this?
The story about the paralyzed man does not end there. To show that he has the power to forgive sins, Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk.
The zine explains why it is so beneficial to hear these stories about Jesus repeatedly:
Humans need reminders over and over again.
We forget that our Creator is for us, moving toward us to bring us new life. Not just for a better life, but a reality that is brand new.
From time to time we may be tempted to think of Jesus as a sweet genie in a bottle, granting us good things — but he is much more than that. Jesus is also a healer, not just of our bodies but of our souls. (The Gospels: Teen Zine, chap 4)
This is what we all need: healing in our bodies and souls. The paralyzed, the blind, the afflicted, the hurting, the dead. These are the types of people Jesus had compassion on and for whom he brought about wholeness.
Before Jesus goes to the cross to bring that wholeness to humanity, he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (Jn 14:27). Jesus gives what nothing else in this world can give. When broken people come to him, he does not diagnose and give advice, he does not make empty promises, he does not say one thing and do another, and he certainly does not wig out. He heals, he rescues, and makes us brand new. He makes the broken whole again and promises to be the one constant in this world who will never let us down. That is the message our teens, in this shaky and unreliable world, desperately need to hear.
