Artificial intelligence, or AI, is technology that enables computers and machines to mimic human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities. It has been around for a while. The chatbot that responds to your text or answers the company phone and tries to direct your call as long as you say the magic words are just two examples of common AI usage. My friends named Alexa and Siri can answer most questions I ask, including giving me directions when I am lost (which is often). They are artificial friends and not all that intelligent—as I like to tell them when they get it wrong. 

AI is everywhere and easily accessible. Some people are using it to write emails, create content, even write books. I enjoy writing, so that does not interest me. I have, however, played with AI to generate ideas from time to time. For example, I recently started a podcast. I told AI what my podcast would be about, who it was designed for, and the problem I hoped it would solve. I asked AI to suggest some names for my podcast. 

As I hit “send,” I also punched a timer. Within 10 seconds, AI had spit out a list of options. While I didn’t choose any of the options, it did spark some ideas. 

Growing up, the only AI I knew about was Frankenstein. In 2024, AI has become so widely used that some fear losing their jobs, only to be replaced by AI. I went to a new Chick-fil-A that recently opened near my church, only to have a robot deliver the food to my table. So, maybe that fear has some merit. 

Although AI has the ability to mimic human intelligence, what continues to separate humans from AI is our capacity for a range of emotions. 

Dr. Susan David, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, recently wrote an article about hard skills vs. soft skills. She said that historically, businesses have called emotional skills “soft,” while technical capacities have been seen as “hard” skills. However, she points out that the World Economic Forum is calling emotional skills “key skills for the future.” She goes on to say that “emotional agility is a roadmap for real behavioral change.”

“As knowledge is increasingly commoditized, we are entering the age of the heart. The capacity to empathize, perspective-take, build trust, and regulate emotions are among the human skills that are the key capacities of the future.”[1]

As AI continues to be trained in technical skills—from answering a phone, to delivering food, to writing a book—it will become increasingly more important that we focus on our emotional health. Our emotions are the essence of what makes us human. Emotions are at the heart of mental health, wellbeing, learning, innovation, relationships, and culture. 

Perhaps we should focus less on developing skills that could be done by AI, and focus more on developing skills like emotional regulation, living within our values, being authentic, and having empathy. These are unique, essential human capacities and not at all “soft.” 

Maybe if we stopped viewing emotions as right/wrong or good/bad, we as a society could get a grip on the rise of depression and anxiety in our culture. 

Out of curiosity, I recently asked AI, otherwise known as Google, to give me scriptures that address emotions, and there were many. Included in that list were scriptures that addressed prayer as the key to being emotionally strong. 

Praise be to God that we have a direct line to the creator of human emotions, a God who understands our emotions and even feels with us. Thank you, Jesus, for showing us in your short life on this earth what it looks like to feel a range of emotions and consistently turn to the Father for comfort. May we follow your example.

1.  Quotations are taken from Susan David’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/susanadavidphd_historically-businesses-have-called-emotional-activity-7176638732412887040-Wyh6 and https://www.linkedin.com/posts/susanadavidphd_as-knowledge-is-increasingly-commoditized-activity-7054857533026373632-iU2r