A guest post by conservative author and speaker Janice Ponds

Someone invited me to go see the movie “M3gan.” I was initially reluctant, yet decided to go as they felt that the movie had a lot of “therapeutic value.”

It did. A lot. My clinical mind was deeply stirred.

I don’t like movies like that, yet it provided an interestingly deep glance into how things will be in the future as people thumb their noses more and more regarding the things of God and become more reliant upon Artificial Intelligence (AI.)

That movie spoke loudly regarding the role of AI in our society and how it’s being literally crammed down our throats. Right now, the effort is on steroids, and it will only increase. There’s been a huge target put on the backs of our children and youth in this area.

This movie highlights that target that’s been put on their backs. I’m not condoning this movie; I’m simply saying that it provided a clear glimpse of where AI can take this society. The unregenerate mind has the propensity to see just how far they can push the envelope.

We are being conditioned on a daily basis to have so many things attempting to replace the role of God in our lives. Additionally, so many things are vying for our attention to replace healthy relationships that we may have with others.

I recently did a podcast/show on “From Destruction to Dignity/Clinical Perspectives; Spiritual Truths” that dealt with a dangerous trend in society called chemsex. There are men who are literally ending their lives through suicide as a result of becoming addicted to this practice. The addiction is not so much of a focus on the cocktail that they ingest but on the smartphones that facilitates a dangerous process that consumes them.

Chemsex means using certain drugs as part of your sex life. It involves using drugs before or during planned sexual activity to sustain, enhance, disinhibit or facilitate the experience. What makes it so unique is that sexual activity is facilitated through the use of a smartphone.

Men are literally engaged in sexual activity with other men who are strangers for up to 48 hours at a time. Through the use of smartphones, they engage in activities with person after person after person for hours. They don’t even know these people. What a slippery slope.

In the movie “M3gan,” a meticulously crafted life-size doll functions to “comfort” a young girl and make sure that she “never feels lonely.” What could possibly go wrong? EVERYTHING! Because that doll was programmed to amass information upon information, it got totally out of control and fixated upon an emotional mindset that was not regulated and balanced.

AI seems so real, yet it conditions people to embrace and even become affectionate with something that is so far removed from reality. The goal is to get folk to fall in love with things to the point that they can’t do without them. Those men who get addicted to chemsex embrace false affection that’s riddled with lust, which disconnects them from reality.

I’ve always been leery of AI, such as SIRI. I don’t want to ask “her” anything. Geez, that acronym stands for: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Personally, I never use it.

Katie, the young girl in the movie “M3gan” became deeply disconnected from reality. She had an excellent therapist who had great insight regarding so many dynamics in her life. This mindset that disconnects people from reality is rampant in our society today. The enemy of our souls wants our children and youth addicted to it.

After seeing the movie “M3gan,” I was deeply reminded that AI is nothing more than man’s attempt to mimic God by creating something in man’s own image. AI can’t create the spirit and the soul; thus, in the wrong hands, it can be very destructive. In many situations, AI wants humanity to accept it as human. So many do. What a setup.

Now more than ever, we need to be developing meaningful and positively productive relationships with each other, especially our children and youth. The enemy is going for the jugular vein, and us being intentional with love, care, concern, and God‘s plan is more vital than ever.

Remember that it’s observable and measurable. Never underestimate the power of the healthy human touch.

The far-left Slate had this to say about M3gan:

M3gan presents itself as yet another cautionary tale about the dangers of artificial intelligence: What if we give a machine the power to learn with no moral or ethical guidance, except to protect one creature at the expense of all others? But it’s really much simpler than that. M3gan doesn’t turn out to be a freaky supergenius. As one of Gemma’s fellow coders points out, most of her verbal responses are just spruced-up word salad. She knows that children are soothed by lullabies, but she thinks that the ideal song to dry an 8-year-old’s tears is Sia’s “Titanium.” She’s a living, so to speak, illustration of the difference between information and knowledge, and knowledge and wisdom.

The problem, though, isn’t really the machines. It’s the people giving them their cues. In a sense, M3gan’s real monster is Cady, whose uncontrolled emotions are linked to a technology with no means of tempering them. Someone once said that if looks could kill, every child would be a murderer, and M3gan makes that insight concrete. Like the devices in our hands, her only task is to serve her user’s immediate needs—to pump out constant stimulation and to learn with every input how to better occupy our minds. A parent’s ultimate goal is to teach children to live without them, but the technologies we’ve designed are meant to never let us turn them off.