In November of 2022, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool called ChatGPT was released to the public. Within five days, it reached one million users—faster than any consumer technology in history. Within two months, over 100 million people were using it. A faster adoption than Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

Whether you realize it or not, you use AI in some capacity. Some use it more intentionally than others. For decades, it has existed behind the scenes, powering search engines, smartphone maps, and digital ads. But now, AI is in our faces, and we can all engage with it directly! Even if you are an elementary-aged kid!

Driving the AI race are the most powerful nations, the most influential technologists, and the most well-funded elites in human history. If we listen to them talk, they are all saying that they are driving technology’s greatest triumph — while at the same time warning it could be humanity’s last great achievement. Wow! Shouldn’t we be more careful with this new technology?

What is the goal? First there is agentic AI, or systems that can plan, reason, act, and improve themselves. Beyond that? Artificial general intelligence (AGI), or machines that can outperform humans at all cognitive tasks. And beyond that? Artificial super intelligence (ASI), or disembodied intellects we can no longer meaningfully comprehend, let alone control.

So, as a Christian, how do we respond to something that will fundamentally change the way we live, view reality, and live out a life of purpose?

Randall Christopher Niles has been using information technology to share the Gospel, proclaim truth, and counter lies for a few decades. He has used the internet as a tool to point people to Christ. Recently, he tackled the question of AI for the Colson Center’s Breakpoint Commentary. How he described its perils and promises is something every Christian needs to hear.

Many people are asking questions about the innovative uses or the implications of AI, but who is asking the more important (and ancient) question:

What does this do to us? To vocation. To family. To identity. To meaning. To truth.

Here is an excerpt of what he says…

Soon, our workplaces will change, our children’s education will change, our economy will change, and our sense of reality will change. And none of us were ever consulted.

So, we may be approaching the greatest societal change in the history of humanity. Not merely incremental. Not another economic cycle. But a shift so profound it will alter how we work, how we relate, how we understand truth, and how we define identity, meaning, and purpose. And it’s not far off. It’s coming quickly.

We are at a crossroads unlike any in history. Not a political revolution or military conflict, but a civilizational transformation—one that will reshape what it means to be human.

What do thoughtful humans do? The answer is not panic or withdrawal. It’s formation. Throughout history, whenever civilizations faced upheaval, like wars, plagues, empires rising and falling, those who endured did not do so by controlling the moment. They endured because they were rooted. Rooted in faith. Rooted in truth. Rooted in practices that form resilient souls.

For Christian families, this moment calls us not to loosen our grip, but to double down. To double down on faith that is lived, not outsourced. To double down on prayer, Scripture, and worship—those things that shape hearts and not just schedules. To double down on the belief that human beings are not accidents, not data points, not upgradeable hardware. Humans are the image-bearers of a living God.

In a world chasing AI, we must recover wisdom. In a culture optimized for speed, we must choose steadfast patience. In an economy obsessed with automation, we must reclaim work—not merely as productivity, but as purpose. We must teach our children not just how to consume, but how to steward, create, and build. Not just how to perform but how to serve. Not just how to navigate screens but how to face reality.

This is also a moment to rebuild community. Not digital crowds or algorithmic tribes, but real community—neighbors who know one another, churches that gather in person, families that eat together, friends who look each other in the eye. AI cannot replace human presence. It cannot replace shared laughter, shared suffering, shared worship, or shared responsibility.

It’s time to be honest about what our families are facing. Behind many entertaining and immersive screens is a form of cognitive warfare—systems designed to capture attention, shape desires, alter behavior, and even destroy souls. Not accidentally, but intentionally. If we do not guard our kids’ minds, others will gladly train them.

Does that mean rejecting technology entirely? No, it means discernment and discipline. Boundaries. Sabbaths. Silence. It means teaching our children that their worth does not come from likes, metrics, avatars, or artificial affirmation, but from being known and loved by God and by people who are truly present in their lives.

In an age when truth can be generated on demand, we must cling to truth that is received, not invented. Biblical truth. Moral clarity. Identity grounded not in self-creation but in divine calling. As machines start to simulate empathy, we must practice real compassion. As reality becomes malleable, we must become people who love what is real—even when it’s difficult.

This moment doesn’t just belong to wealthy oligarchs and elite technologists. It also belongs to parents, pastors, teachers, craftsmen, and families at kitchen tables. History will not only remember who built the machines, but who formed the people living alongside them. We can’t stop the acceleration, but we can decide what kind of people we will be within it.

In the end, perhaps our greatest resistance in this AI age will not be protest, but presence. Being fully human. Fully attentive. Fully alive. Teaching our children to pray, work with their hands, read deeply, think clearly, love sacrificially, and know who they are before a machine tries to tell them.

If you want to read the entire commentary, click on this link: https://breakpoint.org/the-age-of-acceleration/.