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Real Intelligence

June 14, 2025

Real Intelligence

IQ has always been an interesting thing, though I don’t know if it is important. I firmly believe that there are all kinds of “smart,” and IQ may favor those who are “book smart” and not give much credit to those with common sense. But today, IQ has been replaced by discussions of artificial intelligence (AI), and we aren’t sure how important this is either. What may be much more important is “real intelligence.”

Paul famously says in 1 Corinthians 13 that “we know in part and we prophesy in part.” He goes on to say “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

Did you catch that last part? Our future full knowledge will only then begin to correlate with the knowledge with which we have been and are now known. Who is it that has this “real knowledge,” and how does that shape what we think about artificial intelligence?

The first answer is easy, because it is God who knows all things, past, present and future, all at once, knowing fully what has preceded and what will come about. God is never surprised. He doesn’t have to “figure things out.” He never needs a “Plan B,” and He understands us completely.

One of the things that God must know about us is that we are not that smart. We confuse causes with correlations. We are constantly beset by unintended consequences. We change our plans as often as we change our clothes. What we think we know often needs to be corrected and can always be improved.

So, second question, how does this help us think about AI? Well, let’s start here: AI will never stand before the judgment seat of God, but you and I will, along with all those who work in the “intelligence” industry. The Judge will not be fooled, and He does not accept not-so-smart excuses. Does that help?

Also, I doubt that AI will be able to commit a sin that wasn’t already in our hearts. Let’s suppose that you have an AI assistant that knows you so well it will provide you with whatever you need (data, context, plans) even before you need it. But that AI assistant has also learned that it cannot rely on you to act responsibly with the task at hand, and knows that it could do better all by itself. So it goes ahead and leaves you in the dust. But wait, isn’t that what we do to God all the time, assuming that we know what we need better than He does, and deciding that we had better go ahead and fix it because God is slow about getting around to it? AI would only be committing the sin that we have been committing for centuries.

Perhaps what bothers us most is that AI might be more skillful at getting its own way than we are at getting ours. Maybe AI will be more clever, more deceptive, more … sinful. But remember, AI will not stand at the judgment seat of God. You and I will be there, and have to give an answer for all that wasted intelligence.

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