Does using AI challenge God's role as Creator?

from the old testament

• Theologians refer to God’s creation as ex nihilo, a Latin phrase that means “from nothing.” This is not simply from a formless void where there was something like a vacuum. Rather, it refers to the fact that, “in the beginning,” there was nothing until “God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Scientifically, we now understand that that involved creating what underlies matter, the atoms and molecules and so forth. So, God created from nothing, even the basic building blocks of the universe.
• We underestimate God’s creative power when we forget that “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (Psalm 33:6; cf. Hebrews 11:3). We are entirely incapable of making something come into existence just by speaking. We require the foundational matter to exist already. That means that humans are “sub-creators.” We have been given great creative abilities, but we are limited to using what God created. He created us to exhibit dominion over His creation (Genesis 1:26–28), so it is very good for us to organize His world. But we must remember that we are stewards, not truly creative in the sense of competing with God’s creative ability.
• Every tool that man has ever made to help societies progress, such as iron and bronze (Genesis 4:20–22), already existed in raw form. We discovered what God had already left for us to find within His raw materials. AI is no different. It is a software tool built from the raw materials God created. It was not created ex nihilo, nor can it create ex nihilo. Like us, it is restricted to using what its creators have given it. Just as God gave us the raw materials from which we build, programmers have given AI logic access to the information humans have created. Just like we rearrange the raw materials, AI rearranges our creations.

from the new testament

• Jesus, as the divine Son of God, is said to be the one through whom all things exist and remain existing. We read, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15–17; cf. John 1:3). Everything, visible and invisible to us, was created by God through His Son. We rearrange His creation to form new substances, but He created the building blocks that we require.
• AI is part of God’s created order. The ability to create the software, servers, GPUs, and so forth that enable AI is derived from God’s creation and demonstrates humanity's rightful dominion over creation. When used wisely, AI is one of the good gifts that come from God (James 1:17). Because it is just a tool and is limited to generating derivative works, it is thus incapable of challenging God as the true Creator who creates from nothing.

implications for today

While scientists have been working on AI for many years, only recently has it taken large leaps from a largely theoretical technology to feeling almost frighteningly alive in its responses. However, though it appears alive or incredibly smart at times, the reality is that it is simply a tool. As a tool, it takes in large amounts of data and collates and rearranges it. Its creations, then, are merely rearrangements of human works. When something is created based on something else, we refer to the second work as a derivative. It is derived from someone else’s work.

As this article has shown, all work is, in one sense, derivative because only God creates from nothing. Human artwork and inventions are genuinely useful, yet are derivatives of what God first created. Whether or not they directly borrow from His designs in nature, they use His materials. We are thus unable to compete with God because our creations are derivative of His. Since AI derives its work from us, it, too, is unable to compete with God.

Even if someday scientists can create what might only be considered a sentient machine, it would still be no more able to compete with God than we can. This is because God is entirely different from creation (Isaiah 40:18, 25). He is not merely bigger or stronger but unique and unlike us.

AI has its benefits and dangers, but none of that means it is, or will become, a god. It will always remain a human-created tool—always itself a derivative work and only ever able to generate derivative works.