Pathway To The Image Of The Beast? Real-Time AI Analysis Could Fulfill Prophecy

Google has launched Gemini, a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that can seemingly understand and talk intelligently about almost any kind of prompt - pictures, text, speech, music, computer code and much more.

This type of AI system is known as a multimodal model. It's a step beyond just being able to handle text or images as previous ones have. And it provides a strong hint of where AI may be going next: being able to analyze and respond to real-time information coming from the outside world.

Although Gemini's capabilities might not be quite as advanced as they seemed in a viral video, which was edited from carefully curated text and still image prompts, it is clear that AI systems are rapidly advancing. They are heading towards an ability to handle more and more complex inputs and outputs.

To develop new capabilities, AI systems are highly dependent on the kind of "training" data they have access to. They are exposed to this data to help them improve at what they do, including making inferences such as recognizing a face in a picture, or writing an essay.

At the moment, the data that companies such as Google, OpenAI, Meta and others train their models on are still mainly harvested from digitized information on the internet. However, there are efforts to radically expand the scope of the data that AI can work on. For example, by using always-on cameras, microphones and other sensors, it would be possible to let an AI know what is going on in the world as it happens.

Google's new Gemini system has shown that it can understand real-time content such as live video and human speech. With new data and sensors, AI will be able to observe, discuss and act upon occurrences in the real world.

The most obvious example of this is with self-driving cars, which already collect enormous amounts of data as they are driving on our roads. This information ends up on the manufacturers' servers where it is used not just in the moment of operating the vehicle, but to build long term computer-based models of driving situations that can support better traffic flow, or help authorities identify suspicious or criminal behaviour.

In the home, motion sensors, voice assistants and security cameras are already used to detect activity and pick up on our habits. Other "smart" appliances are appearing on the market all the time. While early uses for this are familiar, such as optimising heating for better energy usage, the understanding of habits will get much more advanced.

This means that an AI can both infer activities in the home, and even predict what will happen in the future. This data could then be used, for instance, by doctors to detect early onsets of ailments such as diabetes or dementia, as well as to recommend and follow up on changes in lifestyle.

As AI's knowledge of the real world gets even more comprehensive, it will act as a companion in all instances of life. At the grocer's, I can discuss the best and most economical ingredients for a meal I am planning. At work, AI will be able to remind me of the names and interests of clients in a face to face meeting - and suggest the best way to secure their business. When on a trip in a foreign country, it will be able to maintain an ongoing conversation about local tourist attractions, while the AI keeps an eye on any potentially dangerous situations I might encounter.

There are enormous positive opportunities that come with all this new data, but there is an equal risk of overreach and intrusion on people's privacy. As we have seen, users have so far been more than happy to trade a staggering amount of their personal information in return for access to free products, such as social media and search engines.

The trade offs in the future will be even greater and potentially more dangerous, as AI gets to know and support us in every aspect of everyday life.

If given a chance, the industry will continue to expand its data collection into all aspects of life, even offline ones. Policy makers need to understand this new landscape, and ensure that the benefits balance the risks. They will need to monitor not just the power and pervasiveness of the new AI models, but also the content they collect.

When AI expands its capabilities into the next frontier - the real world - only our imaginations will limit the possibilities.

Editors Note:

The Bible describes a time in the future where an image of the Antichrist is given life to speak on his behalf.  This has been a challenging passage for scholars to try and understand... until now.  While we can only speculate as to just what type of technology John saw when being revealed almost 2,000 years ago - the advances of AI technology may be progressing to where an all powerful world leader incorporates AI in some fashion that allows him to be present worldwide (an attempt to copy God's omnipresence) through AI technology in real time. 

Imagine AI technology in the hands of a dictator and you can only imagine the power at his fingertips to control the population.  He could use AI to assist his rule in making sure all of mankind follows his policies including the requirement that in order to buy or sell one must accept his mark that will also allow for greater monitoring and control of what we can and can't buy. 

When CHAT GPT was introduced in 2022 a Christian researcher asked the bot to write an article on how AI like ChatGPT could potentially fulfill the "Image of the Beast" prophecy in Revelation 13. What an ironic way to approach the subject. Here was Chat GPT's answer:

How scary is that? 

Not only did ChatGPT generate a concise, structured and uncannily human-like response--it gave a glimpse into the scary power of AI, a technology which will surely be used by the beast system to deceive (think "deepfakes") and control the masses during the Tribulation period (Mat. 24:24; Rev. 13:13-14). It seems that the developers at OpenAI were not too happy with its response, though, because the very next day, when I asked ChatGPT the same question, it responded with:

It is not accurate or appropriate to suggest that chat GPT, or Generative Pre-training Transformer, could potentially fulfill the prophecy of the image of the beast, as chat GPT is a tool created by humans and does not have the ability to fulfill prophecies or have any sort of religious significance.

One of the first passages that comes to my mind, when seeing the great strides being made in AI, is Revelation 13:14-15. In this passage, John describes a future time when the fully deceived men of the earth will be called upon by the False Prophet to construct an "image" (i.e. a likeness or statue (lit.)) of the Antichrist:

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." (Revelation 13:14-15)

In verse 15, we read that the False Prophet is granted by God to give the image "life," translated pneuma in Greek, which literally means "breath." Note that the False Prophet can only give it breath but not the breath of life, as that is a power of God alone. It seems that the image has the appearance of life manifested in its ability to speak and reason. But how is this possible for an inanimate object?

Until the advent of AI and robotics, such a thing was not humanly possible. But now, many of the elements described by John can be mimicked with twenty-first century technology such as an android, an AI robot designed to look, move and speak exactly like a human!

A geminoid, for example, is a special type of android that is not only created to look exactly like a specific person but is also equipped with technology that allows the operator to remotely manipulate and talk through it via a wearable brain-machine interface. The geminoid can reproduce the voice and movements of the actual person in whose image it is made and even capture the remote audience's response through its built-in cameras and microphones to send back to the operator.

Imagine the Antichrist having control over thousands of geminoids worldwide, made in his own image, and being able to speak to mankind simultaneously through the geminoids and know exactly when someone refuses to worship it!

Among the more amazing aspects of this image is its ability to cause the deaths of those who refuse to worship it (Rev. 13:15). In the past, some have speculated that the image of the beast might be a 3D hologram of the Antichrist; however, it would be impossible for a mere projection to know when a person is refusing to worship it.

On the other hand, a robot powered by AI could easily detect when someone refuses to worship it and alert the authorities of someone's insubordination. Security robots equipped with cameras and facial recognition technology are already patrolling public spaces around the world, such as malls and airports, and using AI to detect "bad behavior," give audible warnings and notify security. 

In fact, one of the current fears about AI's ability, if applied, is autonomous weaponry. It is possible that facial recognition and decision-making AI could together form a lethal weapon that can target and kill without human involvement. In other words, an AI robot could also have the ability to kill! 

The Pentagon is already rapidly developing AI technologies for warfare as are many other nations.

Of course, this is all highly speculative, and it is possible that the image will be animated by demonic possession or some other means. Nevertheless, it shows that the type of technology needed to create something similar to what John describes in the Book of Revelation is already present! 

To learn more about the Antichrist and his plans such as the Image of The Beast and The Mark of The Beast we encourage you to check out the new release from Pastor Tom Hughes -

Originally published at Christian Evidence - reposted with permission.