John Lennox, Oxford emeritus professor of mathematics and author of some 70 peer‑reviewed papers, warns that artificial intelligence carries grave risks if misused — including empowering authoritarian regimes and encouraging a quasi‑religious veneration of machines. He defends open debate, cautions about social media addiction among children, and rejects transhumanist claims that machines will become conscious. His practical recommendation: start conversations at home and in communities to build awareness and pressure for regulation.
Oxford Emeritus Mathematician John Lennox Warns AI Could Empower Authoritarians — “The Devil Could Use AI To Destroy The World”
Prof John Lennox, 82, is devoting his formidable intellect and camera-ready persona to sounding the alarm about a future dominated by robots - Andrew Crowley for The Telegraph
John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics at Oxford, delivers a stark warning about the rapid rise of artificial intelligence — yet does so with a characteristic cheerfulness and the gentle lilt of his Northern Irish voice. His new book, God, AI and the End of History, frames AI as a technology with enormous promise and serious risks, especially if it falls into the hands of malign actors or is left unregulated.
Lennox combines a distinguished scientific career — about 70 peer‑reviewed papers and longstanding public engagement — with a committed Christian faith. He has engaged prominent critics, including Richard Dawkins; their 2008 Oxford debate, Has Science Buried God?, attracted roughly two million online viewers and showcased Lennox’s calm, witty debating style.
Defender of Open Debate
Firmly in favor of free speech and robust dialogue, Lennox criticised a recent decision at his university to cancel a lecture series on gender identity by Keeble College professor Michael Foran after protests. He warns that requests for “safe spaces” and efforts to suppress dissent risk transforming universities into echo chambers. “Universities moving towards teaching people only what they want to hear is the end of universities,” he says. “We need to get back to the classical notion of teaching people how to think, not what to think.”
AI: Dual-Use Technology With Political Risk
Lennox, right, was taunted about God by Richard Dawkins, left, during their 2008 debate in Oxford
Now 82, Lennox has devoted much of his public work to sounding alarms about how AI might enable authoritarianism or totalitarian control. “It is a risky technology to put into the hands of bad actors because it has the capacity to support authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” he warns. He frames this concern in theological terms as well: “The number one bad actor is the devil. So you could say, AI can be used by the devil, but it can also be used by God.”
“The danger is that AI will encroach more and more on people’s privacy… We give up our privacy so easily.”
Lennox stresses that AI has valuable applications — from faster drug discovery and robotic surgery to logistics improvements that could reduce NHS waiting lists — but that the same tools enable invasive surveillance, facial recognition abuse and automated repression. His direct experience with 20th‑century authoritarian regimes — distributing banned Bibles behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s and surviving a poisoning attempt in Ceaușescu’s Romania — informs his caution about how such technologies might be weaponised.
Concerns About Children, Addiction and Idolatry
He supports measures to limit young people’s exposure to addictive social platforms. Commenting on proposed restrictions for under‑16s and on a recent Los Angeles court ruling against major platforms, he says tech companies design products to capture and hold attention, sometimes creating harms psychologists compare to severe addiction. “They go around like zombies, glued to their smartphones… It could be disastrous for them in later life. We are raising them to worship the machine,” he says.
Lennox also criticises transhumanist and technocratic claims that humans will or should merge with machines. Citing writers such as Yuval Noah Harari, he argues that AI is “just a machine that is computing” and is not conscious: “No one in the AI world is even attempting to produce consciousness,” he says. He warns against treating technology as an object of worship — a view he sees as fundamentally opposed to Christian teaching.
Lennox pictured in Yarnton Manor, a Jacobean manor house outside Oxford, now used as a theological education centre - Andrew Crowley for The Telegraph
Personal Life and Call To Talk
Speaking from Yarnton Manor, a Jacobean theological centre near Oxford, Lennox’s personal life is part of the picture. He and his wife Sally have been married for 58 years; Sally is largely housebound with illness, and Lennox has recently recovered from a mild stroke and shingles. The couple have three grown children and 10 grandchildren. His memoir, My Story, a 500‑page account published in April, details his upbringing in Armagh and his lifelong engagement of faith and reason.
His practical advice for those who share his concerns is straightforward: talk. “Talk to your children and grandchildren first of all, then to your families and friends to generate discussion. Constant engagement spreads and gets a groundswell going.” Through public conversation and careful regulation, he believes society can capture AI’s benefits while reducing its potential to enable oppression.
Publication
God, AI and the End of History (SPCK) is published now; list price £29.99.
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