I write about AI frequently, but I have never clearly laid out the intelligence spectrum until now. My great-grandfather, Peter Desmares, was a brilliant engineer at Zenith Radio Corporation. He held multiple patents, including pioneering work and patents on laser beam technology in the 1960s alongside Robert Adler. Growing up around strong engineering legacies on both my paternal and maternal sides of my family has bred both fascination and healthy skepticism toward rapid technological advancement. That family legacy makes me approach AI with both wonder and caution.
Understanding the Intelligence Spectrum
AI development is often described along an intelligence spectrum with three main stages:
- ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence): This is the AI we interact with today. It excels at specific tasks, such as chess engines, facial recognition, Netflix recommendations, or voice assistants. ANI is powerful within its lane but lacks true understanding, adaptability across domains, or self-improvement.
- AGI (Artificial General Intelligence): A hypothetical system that matches or exceeds human cognitive abilities across virtually all tasks. It could learn, reason, adapt, and even engage in self-improvement. Elon Musk has predicted AGI could arrive as early as 2026–2027. This level would enable AI to handle complex, realistic roles in ways that blur the line between tool and collaborator.
- ASI (Artificial Superintelligence): The stage where AI surpasses human intelligence in every domain like creativity, scientific discovery, strategy, and more. Singularity proponents, such as Ray Kurzweil, envision this leading to an “intelligence explosion” around or after 2029–2045, where AI could design better versions of itself at accelerating rates.
These developments could bring radical changes: solving complex problems like aging, climate challenges, or space travel. Yet, as this column highlights, they also carry risks of deception, loss of control, and misplaced hope.
The Possible Turning Point According to Singularity Leaders
Many futurists tied to the Singularity concept foresee a transformative turning point. This includes what I previously wrote about Musk’s warnings that AI is “far more dangerous than nukes” even as he pursues it through xAI with a strong emphasis on alignment. Ray Kurzweil envisions human-level AI by 2029 and a full Singularity by 2045, marked by humans merging with AI in an era of explosive intelligence amplification and abundance.
By 2030, some forecasts anticipate sweeping workforce automation across office work, content creation, customer service, technical analysis, and beyond. These shifts raise not only serious economic concerns but also spiritual ones: Will we begin to look to AI as provider and savior?
Trusting God Amid Technological Promises
Scripture repeatedly calls us to place our trust in God alone, not in human inventions or systems, no matter how advanced they become. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
In this piece, I connect ASI possibilities to biblical warnings like the “image of the beast that speaks” (Revelation 13:14-15), false miracles, economic control, and a “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). However, let me be clear: while AI could be used by deceptive forces, it is not the Antichrist. AI has no soul or moral agency. It is a created thing, not the Creator.
Throughout history, humanity has repeatedly fallen into the same temptation, such as building towers to heaven (Genesis 11) or seeking salvation through our own works. Today, AI’s promises of abundance, immortality, and god-like intelligence can easily become a modern idol. Yet the Bible is clear: Our ultimate hope is in Christ, who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30) and “holds all things together” (Colossians 1:17). No intelligence explosion can rival the omniscience and sovereignty of God. In this age of rapid change, our trust in the unchanging God remains the firm foundation.
