What Will We Lose?

What will A.I. take from us?

Give me a minute to explain.

[And don’t miss the Afterword!]

It happened to the 19^th C. whalers who were providing oil for lamps. The discovery of crude oil powering electric lights put them out of a job. You can fill in the blanks here with other jobs. Change happens. Something is lost every time it does. Something else takes its place.

Whenever I consider arguments against new AI technology, for instance, my first thought is “What are we going to lose?” What is lost could be anything, including the construction of curricula. From a biblical-theological perspective, I have noted at least two losses we are suffering because of AI doing the work for us.

Number one, disregard for our creatureliness which means our creativity is diminished.

Number two, disregard for our being made in the image (of God) which means our imagination is diminished.

We all know that changes happens. But we should be aware of what we’re giving up, when it does.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

AFTERWORD

I have been collecting cautionary essays on what A.I. will cost us and take from us. Here are a few offerings without comment:

https://hbr.org/2025/11/making-sense-of-research-on-how-people-use-ai

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.