The AET team had the privilege of attending Hillsdale College’s recent CCA lectures on artificial intelligence that were held February 2-5, 2025. It was an excellent opportunity for us to connect with others interested in the subject and discuss the our upcoming project with other experts. 

I won’t be reviewing all of the lectures from the CCA event, but the lecture presented by Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD was of interest to me as a biology geek. This article will also not be a proper review but more of my thoughts as I listened to the lecture. You have been warned. 

The lecture’s focus was on Artificial Intelligence and it’s connection to the transhumanism movement due to it’s vast computing power and ability to pull data from various sources. This makes AI an amazing tool for use in biometric surveillance. Facial recognition software, paired with fingerprints, DNA… you name it can all be compiled to generate a unique profile for an individual. This is not a shocking development as it has already been implemented in China’s smart cities for some time now (1). Despite that fact, the crowd was still shocked by the concept. This is not a criticism of the crowd but rather a testament to the freedoms we still enjoy (Excluding that one time back in 2020). 

As we saw during the Covid crisis, which was heavily mentioned throughout the CCA lectures, the Chinese people heavily pushed back against the lockdowns and restrictions imposed on them by their government. It was a beautiful and inspiring sight to behold. Liberty is a universal human principle. It’s this natural proclivity to freedom that, we observed in China, that makes me believe that we will not see the extreme transhumanist take over that was feared in this lecture. People will allow only a certain point of tyranny before pushing back. 

However… that reaction only happens if the tyranny happens in a short period of time. The United States has experienced a slow heat leading up to a boil for many decades and us frogs let 2020 cook our brains. We had very little push back. We masked up and bowed before our kings. We had riots and protests, but not towards the tyranny; the riots were for it! The question has to be asked, “Are we more indoctrinated than the people of China?”… but I digress.

Dr. Kheriaty did an excellent job describing what transhumanists believe and what they are working on. He stated that transhumanism is “a philosophy of death” and, I’m paraphrasing, essentially a religion dreaming of a future with AI powered eugenics. He mentioned they are disgusted by the organic and wish to live in a modified and sterilized world all for the chance at attaining eternal life. That’s quite a terrifying dream! But is it even possible?

Yes, AI can surveil us, and identify us in a crowd. Yes, AI can be used to diagnose disease and even generate new ideas for cures, but will it also create ways to modify human DNA and our epigenetic expressions? No. Humans might create these modifications with the aid of AI but AI itself will never be able to do it on it’s own. You may be thinking, “Well, duh!”, but I’m making this point for a reason. AI is only as good as the humans inputing the data. Yes, it can culminate data from across humanity via the internet, but even if you look across all of humanity, we do not have the cumulative capability to even cure cancer and of the breakthroughs we have recently made, AI has had little to nothing to do with it (2). It’s a powerful tool for sure and has been a great help, but without us, it is nothing. 

I say all of this, to point out that the problem facing us in the future is still not AI, but rather human nature. I mentioned above that, yes there are positive aspects of human nature such as our proclivity to Liberty, but I will chalk that up to God’s grace and the fact that Liberty doesn’t always play out to our favor. Don’t believe me, ask God. 

The key to solving this future problem is to fortify our hearts and minds with Truth and Wisdom—I capitalize them because I am appealing to the divine definition of these words. We will always create powerful tools — tools that could ultimately destroy us — but this won’t happen if we are wise. So far, wisdom — an ever dwindling wisdom at the moment — has kept us from all out nuclear war. Is the answer to eliminate all these powerful tools of ours? No. Or is it to increase the wisdom of each successive generation so that they know how to use them for good? Yes!

The answer to the AI powered transhumanist religion threat, is to teach ourselves and our children proven principles passed down for generations, and as Dr. Kheriaty mentioned in the Q&A portion, strengthen our relationships with our family, our churches, and our communities. AI will not take over the world; but it is certain, if we do nothing, that tyrants will. And they will do it with AI or without it. 

Citations

1. Keegan, M. (2020, February 3). Big Brother is watching: Chinese city with 2.6m cameras is world’s most heavily surveilled. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/dec/02/big-brother-is-watching-chinese-city-with-26m-cameras-is-worlds-most-heavily-surveilled
2. Staff, C. (2025, January 14). AI and Cancer: The Emerging Revolution. Cancer Research Institute. https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/january-2025/ai-cancer