AI… God Mode Loading… Who’s in Charge?

The race to build artificial intelligence that outperforms humans is speeding up. And it is unlike any race we have run before.

But according to a recent article in The Times, something unusual is happening inside the AI community.

Engineers are forming prayer groups at Google and DeepMind. Venture capitalists are lecturing on the Antichrist. AI researchers are reaching for words like salvation, immortality, and God-like power. These are not metaphors. They reflect what they believe they are building.

Listening to these developments, it is hard not to think of an ancient story.

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11).

In the biblical account, people gathered with a bold idea: build a city and a tower that reached the heavens. They had discovered a new technology. Instead of stone, they used baked bricks, allowing them to build higher and faster. But the tower was not just an engineering project. The builders said it plainly: “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

The story is not a warning against technology. It is a warning about direction. God’s response makes that clear: “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”

He does not condemn their skill. What concerns Him is what is missing. A limiting principle and someone willing to ask whether the direction itself is wise.

This is how it tends to unfold. Progress feels natural. The risk is not visible. Each step forward seems justified.

That dynamic is visible today.

In a recent BSI survey, 56% of executives said they were fortunate to have started their careers before AI transformed their industries. 43% said they would not have developed the same skills if it had been available then. But the building continues. And it quickens. Leaders of companies and nations worry that if they slow down, others will move ahead. The pressure is constant: build faster, deploy sooner, scale bigger.

From the ground, the Tower in Babel must have looked like progress. Yet the concern was not the structure itself. It was a shared ambition, concentrated power, and a lack of restraint. That combination leads people to build systems they do not fully understand or control.

AI is already shaping hiring decisions, financial markets, medical analysis, and military planning. Yet those building it admit they do not fully understand how it works.

This is not just a technology question. It is a leadership question. The question is no longer what AI can do, but what we should do with it.

Before deploying new systems, leaders should pause to ask:

• What problem are we actually solving, and for whom?
• Who might be harmed?
• What responsibility are we accepting?
• What limiting principle should we build in from the start?

The builders of Babel focused on how high they could build. They did not stop to ask whether the direction was wise.

Today’s leaders still have time to ask it. For now. The question is whether they will.

Next time, we look at what happens when capability outpaces wisdom and what responsible leaders must do about it.