The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes for the Age of Superintelligence
The artificial intelligence community just waved goodbye to yet another top safety and regulation official — and he offers a unique angle in his warning to the world.
David Robinson had been leading safety reports for OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Robinson resigned in the first week of October, stating that the industry’s approach to safety has been stemming from a broken culture. He penned the following words in a piece for The Atlantic, which contain more truth than perhaps he even knows: “The future depends on wisdom that Silicon Valley lacks.”
We’ll come back to that.
His departure comes on the heels of several other prominent AI safety researchers abandoning the industry. Their exits have paired with dreadful public warnings about the future of this technology, leaving the American people to grapple with the headlines and the unknown.
Take Jacob Coxon, for example. After leaving Claude developer Anthropic in September, he wrote on X that top tech labs are “gambling with our lives” by racing toward self-improving superintelligence. He went on to reveal that the people building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Comforting.
For clarity, the industry term “superintelligence” refers to a hypothetical AI system that developers believe could surpass humans in overall knowledge and capability. This could happen through recursive self-improvement (RSI) in which AI models design and continually improve their own successors.
While the Trump administration has taken to using the term as a reference to AI more broadly, Coxon used it as the industry intends: the potential nightmare of AI evolving beyond our ability to contain.
Let’s go back to David Robinson for a second. Beyond diagnosing the issue of a “lack of wisdom,” he went on in his article to describe the kind of wisdom that is desperately needed — the kind that shows us “how to handle dangerous technology and, more fundamentally … what it means to care for people.”
This kind of wisdom has only one source.
Proverbs 4:7 states, “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, acquire understanding.” The natural question is, how can true wisdom be acquired? Well, it is not gained by happenstance or by any means of passivity.
The word of God teaches that wisdom is found only, “if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure” (Proverbs 2:4).
That same proverb states that when wisdom enters the human heart, it bears fruits of knowledge, discretion, and understanding. Knowledge is pleasant, discretion brings protection, and understanding guards the one who finds it.
If those spearheading AI labs begin searching for wisdom with the same fervency as they do innovation, capital gain, and victory in the arms race, perhaps we might reap the benefits of honing a brilliant technology for human flourishing, rather than threatening it entirely.
In the absence of wisdom, we ought not to expect flourishing. Thus, the need for appropriate guardrails toward that end is becoming increasingly dire.
Whistleblowers coming forward to expose carelessness in the industry is a good thing. Speaking up when danger is on the horizon is profitable. What is not profitable, however, is responding in fear.
The wisest man in history, King Solomon, tells us, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
The pride of man has reared its head through the latest technology and means of production before. As soon as human beings had the chance, they took brick and mortar and built the tower of Babel, aiming to reach as high as heaven to make a name for themselves — not for the God who gave them clay, water, and sun in the first place.
Today, we are seeing the latest expression of that sinful pride: men thinking they can hold infinite knowledge without it destroying them. Casting wisdom aside, they trust in their own minds and technical ability rather than in God.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of wanting to be all-knowing, like God. He judged that decision then, and He will not be mocked now (Galatians 6:7).
There is nothing more urgent for the unbeliever than to humble themselves, fall on their knees, and cry out to the Creator for salvation. There is, likewise, nothing more urgent for the believer than to refuse every temptation to fear in these times — to live the joyful, abundant life offered to them in Christ.
It is not a suggestion to be unafraid. It is a commandment given us by God, time and time again throughout the Scriptures.
Do not stifle your witness to the watching world.
The book of Ecclesiastes warns us that there are many dark days in this life under the sun, and that we will encounter circumstances which are difficult, perplexing, and often don’t make sense. Yet, there are a few things that author King Solomon found to be good: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot” (Ecclesiastes 5:18).
New threats to our livelihood may come at alarming rates, but our responsibility as Christians remains the same: Do not dread the future or fear the potential of “superintelligence.” Rather, “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
So, keep breaking bread with those you love. Keep enjoying the toil and the lot that God has given you with a grateful heart. Regardless of the news cycle, and whatever may come out of Washington and Silicon Valley — rejoice in what you have been given.
Our lives are but a vapor, a mist, Solomon says. The years go by quickly, and soon, we will return to dust.
That need not be depressing — in fact, let it be motivating as you live the most upright, joyous, and noble life possible along the way. Be encouraged, for we have all the instruction we need to please God in every circumstance, including the ones out of our control.
God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” in Revelation 22:13. If God is the Omega just as much as He is the Alpha, what is there to fear?
At the end of all things, just as much as at the beginning — He is there. And He rules and reigns at every point in between.
Human history was born from and ends in perfect wisdom, and God will tie the final bow on our story.
Not Sam Altman, or Dario and Daniela Amodei, or Donald Trump, or Xi Jinping — but Jesus Christ will do it, who is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Erica Mendel serves as direct response manager at Family Research Council.

