Omnipotence, Free Will and AI

Recently, more than once, I have read or heard theologians rethinking the doctrine of omnipotence; ascribing to God all power.  The context is usually during a discussion of theodicy, the attempt to understand God in a universe of pain and suffering.  The argument usually includes the question, “How could an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God allow his people to suffer?”  What follows is usually something like, “He must either not love all that much, or he must not be powerful enough to save his people from pain and suffering.”

The discussion is deep, and multifaceted.  Usually somewhere it is mentioned that Jesus emptied himself of something when he became a man.  He limited himself in some way, yet retained his deity.  Similarly, God, by giving humans free will, gave them, at least in some limited way, an opportunity to act contrary to God’s will / plan, which seems to open up an infinite number of possible actions and outcomes.  To truly honor man’s free will, God must allow suffering, including child abuse, mass murder, and war. 

Some are therefore coming to the conclusion that God is less than we have given him credit for.  Maybe he didn’t see the future consequences when he gave humans free will.  Maybe he is reacting, as in a cosmic chess game, constantly trying to counter humans’ latest evil.  Maybe some are reconstructing God more into their own image?

For now, I think I will stick with the traditional belief that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and loving.  I can manage that theological tension as I see, and experience, suffering and pain.

But, I see, or maybe hear, an echo of this concept in the current discussion about AI.  Very cautiously, and with great awareness of the weakness of this analogy, I see humans, in the image of God, being creative, like their God, creating something that may require their emptying.  Humans are laying aside some of their power / control by giving AI, in a sense, its free will.

Will humans become less human as AI does more of the functions that humans used to perform?  Will there be a point, or maybe we have already passed it, where humans now are limited in power because they have relegated a domain of decisions to AI?  Have / will humans become stuck with the consequences, so that we must constantly react to the newest unforeseen action of AI?  

Do humans retain the power to “pull the plug”? (Maybe like God did in the days of Noah?)

…???