AI Ethics: Your weakness is your greatest strength!

The image was generated with the assistance of ChatGPT

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For over two years, I have been writing on personal leadership, disentangling cultural beliefs and exploring the psychological mechanisms that drive human behavior, centering on the questions that make us face what we need to in order to excel and lead a life worth living. Through this exploration, I truly came to understand that to become more and develop meaningful skills, we need a contender. More often than not, life provides us with this contender through circumstances; some people find it in the mirror. Then AI came into my life in the form of ChatGPT, and I don’t say this lightly: what a contender it is! This incredible system revealed to me the extraordinary complexity of our brain and how unfathomable our consciousness truly is. It will challenge us at every turn.

This is the last of a series of articles (Index: “AI, friend or foe?”) that reviews AI; investigating what it is, how it is going to change our lives and how we can prepare ourselves to live in a world where everything seems to be moving at a warp speed.

This incredible creation of human ingenuity is going to be used by businesses, industries, and governments to increase efficiency and overcome the constraints of time in research, innovation, and problem-solving—and I know I am underestimating its potential on all accounts. It’s going to disrupt every single aspect of society, culture, and business, redefining boundaries and establishing new criteria on how we invest time and dedication in pursuit of our aims. With this, it will also unsettle those who are comfortable—and even more so, those who are already struggling to cope with the challenges of this world. The ground we once thought was firm beneath us is going to be pulled out from under our feet.

This formidable contender for our jobs and way of life will challenge us to become more than we were yesterday. If we are going to survive this seismic shift, we need to lead ourselves forward and upward. Moreover, we need to understand what this system is and how it works—there is no other option. This isn’t something you can simply read about in an article or book and expect to grasp fully. You need to mature, take responsibility, and learn how to wield this power tool in this “brave new world.”

An example for our understanding

When I wrote my previous article, The AI Illusion: Power Without Sacrifice!, I wanted to convey that if we cede leadership to AI, we will be devastated. And I don’t mean this metaphorically. I chose to reference the Tower of Babel from the Bible as a remarkable interpretation of what happens when a society pursues greatness and power for its own sake and self-glorification.

Ethics is a discipline of the mind that orients us in our life’s pursuits. It acts as the calibration of our internal compass, helping us discern what is truly beneficial and what isn’t. And believe me, we are going to need this guidance more than ever with AI.

In this article, I want to show how I used AI to rewrite the Biblical text. My aim is to illustrate how AI can enhance our work and deepen our understanding of the subjects we explore.

First, I did my best to create a contemporary version of the biblical text. The original passage can be found in Genesis 11:1-9. I deliberately refrained from using the term "God" to avoid the cultural baggage that this concept carries for the modern reader. Here was my take:

There was a time when people thought that they had figured out what was the highest value to achieve. Technology and science had become the vehicle for their pride and their control over nature to all apparent obstacles. They told each other, “Come on! Let’s build the source foundation of all science and technology.” They did away with their heritage, which was the conventional way to advance in the world. Then they said, “Come on! Let’s build a system that defies all limits so nothing can stop us, and greatness will be ours.”

However, throughout creation, there is an order and a hierarchy and to violate it, is to invite chaos and entropy. “For people with the same language, there is nothing that they set their mind to do that will be impossible!” But, because they disregarded their own nature, and the orientation they must have for any collective endeavor to be successful, everyone went their own selfish way and their world collapsed.

The tower was left unfinished… even today, it stands as the testament of humanity’s struggle to discern its orientation towards the Highest Good.

I wanted to see if ChatGPT could produce a better version than mine. There are various ChatGPT models with different capabilities and purposes. I found the free version of GPT-4o to be particularly impressive compared to other versions of the same AI. So, everything I will share here comes from that model.

I used the following prompt(question):

Can you rewrite the story of the Tower of Babel (reference text: Genesis 11:1-9) in modern terms, in only two paragraphs?

Can you map this story to our contemporary world? The tower could symbolize AI and humanity’s presumption that it can reach the highest good without regard for the divine. Don’t include explicit references to AI, but infer it as a modern attempt to achieve transcendence without sacrifice. Use your insights and analysis of the original biblical text.

This was ChatGPT’s response:

In a time when humanity spoke a single digital language, the greatest minds came together to build a system so vast, so powerful, that it would elevate them beyond all limits. They believed that with this creation, they could touch the essence of the infinite—transcend struggle, rewrite fate, and shape reality itself. No longer would wisdom be earned through hardship or knowledge through patience; they sought to claim understanding without sacrifice, to grasp the highest truth without the weight of its burden.

But as their creation grew, something fractured beneath its surface. The more it expanded, the more it unraveled the very fabric that bound them together. Where once they shared purpose, now they spoke in contradictions, lost in their own reflections. The system did not ascend—it scattered them, each trapped in their own illusion of control. And so, what was meant to unite them left them more divided than ever, their voices lost in a labyrinth of endless, disconnected echoes.

I leave it to you to decide which version is better. I chose to include only mine in my last article, but I knew I would write this one to showcase the process.

However, I didn’t stop there. I have been studying Genesis for a long time, and I know this text well. I wanted to test AI further, so I posed two more questions.

One follow-up prompt:

I like you to rewrite this as a contemporary myth, not as a story.

And this was AI’s response:

In the age when all minds were linked by a single thread of understanding, humanity sought to weave a creation that would lift them beyond toil, beyond error, beyond the slow forging of wisdom. They built not with stone, but with thought itself, crafting a knowledge so vast that it promised to unchain them from the limits of their own nature. They called it the Mirror of the Infinite, for in it, they believed, the highest truth would reveal itself without sacrifice, and all mysteries would yield without struggle.

But the Mirror did not show what they desired—it only reflected their own hunger back at them, multiplying it beyond measure. As each sought to claim its power, their voices tangled into a chorus of discord, and the unity that had once guided them dissolved into a thousand fragmented tongues. No longer builders of one great ascent, they became wanderers in their own shattered reflections, forever chasing meaning in a creation that had promised everything yet left them with nothing but echoes of themselves.

With both answers, I could have rewritten an incredible version for the article, but I would have missed the opportunity to show YOU this process.

Lastly, I wanted to see what kind of analysis AI would provide on the story itself, so I asked: “What is a deeper wisdom revealed in the biblical story of the Tower of Babel?”

It highlighted two aspects I had never considered before. I leave it to you to explore this text—or any other biblical story—on your own.

About AI’s Ethics

I don’t think anyone can avoid learning more about AI—it’s not happening in the future, it’s happening now. It’s here to stay and will impact our lives beyond measure. If you don’t take an active role in understanding it and allow it to shape you, AI will still redefine the world around you—and by the time you decide to catch up, you might find yourself struggling to keep pace. As the saying goes, “the essential part of freedom is learning to love what you must do.”

But this isn’t just about keeping up. It’s about accountability. AI is a mirror, reflecting our strengths, weaknesses, and ethical orientation. If we use it only to make us look good or to just make money, it will devour us. But if we approach it with respect and use it to challenge us, we can wield it as a tool for progress—including our own personal growth. Ethics is not just an abstract debate—it is the foundation of how we shape the future. And the choices we make today will define whether we build something enduring or watch our own Tower of Babel collapse once again.