Recently, a student showed me the days-long conversation she’d been having with her Snapchat A.I. assistant. She felt ambivalence about how “creepy” it was, but she couldn’t stop engaging with it. No matter what she asked, a reply instantly blinked onscreen. Yet it gave more than just information; the A.I. assistant also gave itself a name and a backstory, clearly programmed to mimic actual human experience.
For those of us who have seen too many sci-fi movies, A.I. can seem equal parts amazing and terrifying. A.I. processes input faster and more comprehensively than any human brain could. Will A.I. serve us or rule us? It’s a question that’s no longer fantasy, but reality. And the answer hinges on understanding what it really means to be human.
Delivered as papal audiences from 1979 to 1984, St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body did not explicitly address A.I. But it did anticipate the lies that chip away at our humanity. TOB is not only prophetic, but also provides essential formation for young people. TOB grounds us in authentic humanity so we can use tools properly and resist the dangers of substituting A.I. for authentic identity and relationships. Here are seven critical truths TOB imparts for remaining human in an A.I.-infused world.
7 Truths Theology Of The Body Teaches Us About What It Means To Be Human
- Your identity is not an algorithm. A.I. platforms have one goal: engagement. They collect personal data and then exploit it by serving calibrated content that keeps you scrolling. But you are far more than a collection of clicks. You are not the sum of your algorithmic data, but as St John Paul II said, “the sum of the Father’s love” for you. A.I. reduces persons to content, but God cherishes us as His own sons and daughters. We may indeed have to compete to be seen within the A.I. system, but we never have to compete for God’s attention or love.
- You are made for communion, not consumption. Have you ever reached the “end” of a social media feed? Have you ever finished one YouTube video without another queuing up? A.I. platforms offer endless consumption, but it never fills us. Our hearts yearn for the security and communion of love. God placed this desire so that we are motivated to seek Him. St. John Paul II said, “The opposite of love is not hate, but use.” While consuming content can numb us out, it’s ironically empty and can’t ever bring authentic joy and fulfillment.
- Sacrifice is not the enemy. A.I. promises to relieve us of work, but is endless leisure what we really want? Sacrifice allows us to practice self-gift. Even further, by uniting our sacrifices to Jesus’ redemptive work on the Cross, we collaborate with him in our sanctification.
- Your body is not a machine. God created us as body-soul creatures. Our bodies are not tools, but essential to our personhood. When we treat our bodies like machines, we experience disconnect and dissatisfaction. In the Incarnation, Jesus shows us that our bodies are fulfilled instead by self-gift. St John Paul II says the body is “a witness to creation as a fundamental gift, and therefore a witness to Love as the source from which this same giving springs.”
- Relationships are embodied, not virtual. The A.I. forces competing for your time and attention have discovered something critical: you are made for relationships. As the Creator Himself said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). This is why the most “successful” A.I. platforms are those that approximate relationships—it’s the thing most compelling to us. But human relationships must be embodied, because human persons are. While A.I. platforms can facilitate communication and may feel “real,” they always place us behind digital walls. This comes at a cost; without authenticity and vulnerability, there can never be intimacy.
- Imposters cannot satisfy. Have you ever encountered A.I. art or stories? They aren’t just hilariously weird, but also isolating. A.I. imposters of real love and friendship (social media, chatbots, etc) or sexuality (porn) can indeed occupy our senses, but they can’t share or reciprocate anything. We can recognize these imposters precisely by their disembodiment and reduction of authentically human actions, which always flow toward others, into isolating habits.
- Love cannot be programmed. As we talk about in the new study from Ascension, Envision: Theology of the Body for Middle School, St. John Paul II reminds us that only our bodies have “the capacity of expressing… that love in which the person becomes a gift and… fulfills the meaning of his being and existence.” No disembodied A.I. platform, no matter how sophisticated or realistic, can love. But you, like all other human persons, have the ultimate power that A.I. can never replicate: giving and receiving love.
Image: Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash
