Machines Hold the Trigger

The United States military wants to become an “AI-first fighting force.” This means artificial intelligence would play a central role in how the military plans, decides and fights. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced this initiative in January, and the Pentagon has already signed deals with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, SpaceX and Reflection. These deals let AI systems run on the military’s most classified computer networks and be used in real-time operations.

Not everyone thinks this is a good idea.

At least one researcher at GovAI is warning that AI could put lives at risk.

“The risks are basically because these technologies are so new,” Jake Steckler told the Washington Times in an interview published yesterday. “Some risky situation is going to pop up, and then the next thing you’re going to see is that they’re not going to want to use it.” Steckler further pointed out that AI-enabled systems often produce very different results from even small changes in input—the kind of differences that can mean life or death in war. “Soldiers need to see these things working consistently for them to trust them,” he said. “It’ll take time for anyone to be able to build that trust, and I think there’s a lot of technical problems that still need to be solved before that trust is even possible to build.”

Back in May, cbs News anchor Chris Livesay put the hardest question directly to the commander of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Dagvin Anderson: “What would you say to skeptics that it’s ghoulish that we’re outsourcing death to robots?”

“I understand the concern,” Gen. Anderson said. “It’s ghoulish to me, and it is disturbing, but it’s also foolish not to adopt it because our adversaries will.”

In other words, America’s leaders know AI is dangerous, but they are adopting an “AI-first fighting force” anyway because they believe it would be far more dangerous to fall behind in an AI arms race.

Two years ago, Dr. Bryan Wells said in a nato Science and Technology Organization video, “Artificial intelligence really underpins so much of what nato now does, right from military operations through to political decision-making. It is the backbone of so much of nato’s activity.”

That is quite the statement. nato is the most powerful military alliance in history, and its chief scientist is saying that AI is “the backbone” of much of its activity. No wonder General Anderson thinks it’s “foolish” not to adopt an “AI-first fighting force.”

What does God think about America’s “AI-first fighting force”?

In his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, the late Herbert W. Armstrong noted that it is actually God who determines the outcome of wars (Psalm 33:10-19), and that God promises to throw down America’s strongholds as punishment for its rebellion against Him and His law (Micah 5:10-11).

Only repentance can alter this outcome. America’s “AI-first fighting force” cannot save its military strongholds. In fact, another Bible prophecy indicates America’s overreliance on AI may be its undoing.

For decades, Mr. Armstrong taught that America would be conquered by an end-time European leader understanding dark sentences (Daniel 8:23). In the King James Version, the phrase “dark sentences” translates from the Hebrew word chidah, which means a riddle, an obscure saying, a perplexing question or hidden, crafty plots. My father, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, has written that these “dark sentences” involve artificial intelligence.

“There are few things in this world as dark or as hard to understand as those technologies involving artificial intelligence,” he wrote in “The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence.” He continued:

But Daniel 8 prophesies an end-time leader who will understand “dark sentences.” I believe God is now revealing what these “dark sentences” are about.

Manipulating artificial intelligence is a powerful way to manipulate the minds of the masses. It also opens new possibilities in advanced warfare. Whoever understands this technology has a significant advantage in this world. It seems certain that some will exploit the dark side of AI.

Later in this article, he highlighted the work of former German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg and others within nato to transform AI into a military weapon. While Dr. Wells says AI is the backbone of nato and General Anderson says the U.S. would be foolish not to rely on it, the Bible indicates that a leader with a deep understanding of how AI works will use it to betray and conquer America.

Ezekiel 7:14 paints an alarming scenario: “They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.” My father has warned since 1995 that overreliance on technology is America’s “Achilles heel,” and now AI is intensifying that reliance.

Google ceo Sundar Pichai told 60 Minutes in 2023, “AI will be as good or as evil as human nature allows.” Bible prophecy tells us that the humans controlling this technology will use it against the U.S. Only a return to God can spare America from the catastrophe its machine-triggered future is racing toward.