February 5, 2026

By Jim Towey

The golden calf in Biblical times is now the bronze bull of ours.

You likely know of the iconic Wall Street sculpture of the bull which writer Dianne Durante described as follows:

“The Bull’s head is lowered, its nostrils flare, and its wickedly long, sharp horns are ready to gore; it’s an angry, dangerous beast. The muscular body twists to one side, and the tail is curved like a lash: the Bull is also energetic and in motion.”

That bovine represents the true nature of AI, a creature of unbridled greed, a dangerous menace. The good that might come from AI’s advances is secondary, incidental, to its creators who are hell-bent on amassing wealth and therefore, global dominance. Big Tech is the master and lord of Wall Street now, with all of the world’s largest companies numbering among its legion and responsible for the stock market’s exuberance.

Love of money

Scripture warns us, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” The love of money. All evil. Let those words sink in. Saint Paul states, “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and a trap. They are letting themselves be captured by foolish and harmful desires which drag men down to ruin and destruction.”

Well, AI’s innermost circuitry is love of money. AI will gore our world if we do not resist now, while we are able. Big Tech’s insatiable greed, its love of money, its reckless promotion of AI, is evil. It will lead us all toward ruin and destruction.

There, I said it. Have a nice day!

Don’t get me wrong. Having money or wanting money is not a sin. I know many prosperous men and women who are admirable stewards of their wealth and honor God through their lives and charity. Greed is different. And right now, Big Tech is the Dark Knight’s Joker sitting on a pile of money, laughing, taunting.

Man playing God

But this is nothing new. Big Tech is driven by the same impulses that afflicted the Israelites on their sojourn from Egypt, or the masterminds of the Tower of Babel, or Adam and Eve, themselves: man wants to be God.

The punishment for the Israelites worship of the golden calf was an odd one: Moses had it ground to a fine powder and mixed with water, and then he had the people drink it, as if saying, “You love gold so much? Here, drink up!”

Saint Paul seemed to understand the logic motivating this punishment. “Their god is their belly and their glory is in their shame. I am talking about those who are set upon the things of this world. As you well know, we have our citizenship in heaven.”

Big Tech wants us to forget about that citizenship, our orientation toward eternal life, and exchange our humanity for the bedazzlement of AI’s dystopian heaven, not the real one, our home..

You may say I am an alarmist, a Luddite kill joy threatened by modernity. But don’t take my word for it. Perhaps you saw the stories this week of Wall Street’s wake up call.  The $300 billion sell-off of software company stocks is only the beginning of a major recalibration of market values as AI’s tentacles strangle global economics. The recent essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture of AI’s impacts on global stability.

I have written here and here and here about the inevitable job displacement, the gobbling up of white collar work, and the collapse of entry-level employment for the college-educated. Young people, beware! Big Tech promised this would not happen. It lied.

Big Tech calling the shots

Read this hard-hitting piece in The Hill. John Mac Ghilionn is right. AI has fashioned a powder-keg. Meanwhile, our leaders are asleep. Only the governor of Florida seems to understand where this is headed and is pushing back against federal efforts to dictate America’s response to AI’s self-serving demands. The current administration in Washington, like its predecessor, seems beholden to Big Tech’s influence peddling and campaign funding charms. Congress is no better.

What can you do as AI hastens its hostile takeover of our way of life? Choose not to use ChatGPT and its ilk. Resist letting AI think for you or do your work. Continue to read, write, create. Find time to pray. Reconnect with your faith tradition. Worship with others. Go for long walks in nature. Spend time at meals with friends.  Love your family. Celebrate your humanity. You will need your mind and your faith to be alive and functioning to cope with what’s ahead.

And tell our spiritual leaders, starting with Pope Leo XIV, and all who love the good, to speak up now and proclaim that AI’s empty promises are nothing but bull.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)