Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things.

Today, author Bob Maginnis is back, continuing to unpack the new AI Cold War. Friends, we're a little over a month away from our next Prophecy in the News Live event, Friday and Saturday, May 1st and 2nd, at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas.

You are invited to this free event featuring top Bible scholars, teachers, and researchers, discussing current events and end-times prophecy, God's plan for Israel, unlocking biblical mysteries, and more scripture-based insight that will bring clarity to the chaos.

Speakers include Dr. Larry Spargimino, Dr. Rob Lindstead, Micah Van Huss, Josh Davis, Mac Dominick, and Larry Stam. Registration is now open for this free two-day event. Visit swrc.com to sign up, or simply call 1-800-652-1144. Now, here's our host, Dr. Larry Spargimino.

Larry Spargimino: Isaiah 21:6 says, "Go set a watchman, let him declare what he sees." And what do we see? Well, I'm looking at a new book titled *The New AI Cold War: Liberty versus Tyranny in the Age of Machine Empires*.

The author, Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Maginnis, is with us on the phone once again. We're going to continue our previous program with Bob Maginnis. Bob, thank you so much for pulling away from your research and writing and coming back on the show.

You describe today's global struggle as a new Cold War. What makes this conflict fundamentally different from the Cold War of the 20th century, and why are the stakes even higher now?

Robert Maginnis: As everybody knows, the Cold War of the 20th century was between the Soviet Union and the West, the United States in particular. The mechanism that divided us was certainly ideology: communism versus republicanism or democracy and freedom in the West. But the vehicle was nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons, of course, continue to be available to people of various nations and used as a part of the incentive to not go to war.

However, in the modern era, I think artificial intelligence threatens to be something far more dangerous and far more pervasive than even the communist version of a nuclear arsenal and the threat of annihilation of mankind. What I mean by that is AI seems to be neutral, but it's not. It's not spiritually neutral. It's not neutral in terms of how it's used in economies because it will transform economies eventually.

It certainly transforms communication, it transforms medicine in ways that we're just beginning to realize. There's not much that it won't touch. Will it change the job market? Very definitely in time. It certainly changes a host of things in terms of what's good and what's bad. I think it will change people of faith in ways that may not be complimentary.

So, when you look across the entire realm of all technologies and the way of life, it's going to change our way of life in the next decade or so unlike anything that we've seen in the last couple thousand years because it's going to permeate every aspect of life. Even Elon Musk, who is well known for his satellites or his autonomous cars and for being helpful to the Trump administration, has said that he expects that most people won't have to work in a decade because AI is going to take over.

Of course, he also thinks other things, but he warns that AI has a demon in it. In fact, if it's used improperly, it definitely can be used for evil. So, there are so many things that are going to transform us. It's going to become the operating system of a lot of countries around the world. It's going to dictate government policy. It's going to dictate who gets medical treatment and who doesn't.

It's going to dictate who can buy and sell. Now, if this sounds like Revelation 13, it does, and with good reason because it gives all the instruments that we thought we would never understand that are outlined in Revelation, and all of a sudden they're becoming pretty self-evident that AI brings about a future that may, in fact, be eschatologically true and therefore could be spelling the end times. Don't know, but could be.

Larry Spargimino: Well, you write about technological salvation myths, as you call it. You speak about transhumanist narratives promising technological deliverance from aging, suffering, and death. This is kind of like what we see in the ancient idols. This is really nothing new under the sun, just taking us away from common sense, from the path that Jesus set for us. So, this salvation myth—the idea that we can be delivered by a machine—why not? That's dangerous to say the least.

Robert Maginnis: The whole transhumanist issue is quite popular in the AI realm, in Silicon Valley and the like. I'm reminded of a conversation that was caught by accident, perhaps last fall, between President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia at a meeting there in Beijing. They were heard, and one of them said, "We think we're going to be able to extend the life of mankind to maybe 100 or 150 years using some of these high technologies."

Well, that's the sort of thing of the futurist, the artificial intelligence world that is making the promises and therefore that buys almost a religious-like following in their ilk. It certainly has attracted many trillions and trillions of dollars around the world. There's not a country that isn't heavily invested in artificial intelligence.

These things are not to be dismissed. There's no question that artificial intelligence will improve our life if used properly to improve healthcare benefits, pharmaceuticals, and the like. However, with that, there's a host of dangers. I try to be as realistic as I can in outlining those in *The New AI Cold War*, recognizing that we're really in a contest between liberty and tyranny.

If you let too much AI find its way into your life, especially in your government life, then it could end up abandoning liberty and embracing tyranny.

Larry Spargimino: Right. And then you speak about AI-driven ethical advisors. Wow. I mean, that's okay, I've got a problem. I want to know what to do, so I go to my AI robot. Is that really proliferating? Are people thinking, "Well, these machines can show me how to live, they can show me what's right, they can show me: should I get divorced, should I get married, should I go to church, should I not go to church?" Tell us how this is developing—the idea of AI-driven ethical advisors.

Robert Maginnis: Well, the concept is really if you took all of what you thought was good advice and you crammed it into one—what I call large language model—and you created an algorithm that mimicked a social worker that was very empathetic and so forth, and they would produce guidance based upon your inquiry about an issue with a spouse or with a child or with some neighbor or whatever, even in the church, a spiritual issue.

They will dip into that bank of information and bring you a very confident response. A lot of people, unfortunately, because it sounds so confident and so articulate, they'll believe it and they'll embrace it. It may end up being absolutely contrary to what was in your best interest, much less your spiritual interest.

So, yeah, there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be locked into this social advisor role, or they're going to use the AI as their kind of operating system in life. They're going to come to AI with all their deepest secrets and seeking of advice. Unfortunately, it really comes down to what is in there and how the algorithm, the recipe is put together as to what response it gives.

There was a study not all that long ago that found that less than 50% of the responses and the information in these LLMs was really pro-Christian. So, you're going to get more of a secular response with a little bit of Christianity sprinkled in there, just enough to be convincing, perhaps, because it's so confident. This is a recipe for disaster. I think that we need to have more guardrails in place, and you need to be very cautious about what you believe these days.

Larry Spargimino: Bob, how are authoritarian regimes using AI as weapons of control? I guess that's the big thing. I think China's probably doing that now. But how are these things being used?

Robert Maginnis: Well, certainly the first chapter, I go into what China is doing. It's doing a host of things: social control, millions of cameras, they monitor everything on the internet, they monitor your job, work, they monitor your personal accounts, your data, your banking accounts. They know what your iris looks like, they know your facial, they know the gait when you walk.

With these millions and millions of cameras out there, of course they use social scoring. Those that are aligned with the ideology of the Communist Party get the benefits, and those that don't, they can be squeezed out of everything. Now, it's not just in China. What China does through its Digital Belt and Road initiative is it sells these mechanisms, these control mechanisms, to authoritarian regimes across the world.

So, they're in Africa, they're in South America and elsewhere. The tyrants, much like those in Beijing, use these tools to control the people. Of course, this is all AI. The police will then pick you up based upon what AI is telling them is someone that is not being ideologically correct. Of course, that's whatever they define as correct or not correct.

So, it's very disturbing. Of course, the Russians do it. They do it a bit differently because it's all about regime survival. Of course, other tyrants, the North Koreans, they do it. My concern, Larry, is how the West is going to incrementally allow this to take over. We already have federal agencies and government agencies at the local level that are using AI to make distinctions.

They help in the policing of communities, and they say, "Okay, this is what you need to do or not do." They make decisions about the distribution of services. When you do that, you're really going back to the biases. You're really subject to the biases that are fed into these systems. If they say you don't deserve this, then you're not going to get it. Nobody can answer why other than the algorithm.

The algorithm is not a person; it's alleged to be something that's neutral and unbiased. So, you can see ultimately this could be incredibly dangerous for the West, and we would start to lose our liberties because it's incredibly invasive. It's incredibly relied upon by some people because they think it's neutral in making decisions about life and death and privileges and not privileges and the like. So, Katie bar the door. There's a lot to this.

Larry Spargimino: Our guest, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis, has done humanity a great service, and I'm certainly including local and national leaders who need to be aware of what's going on. AI presents a serious challenge to liberty. It really does. Bob Maginnis's books on AI are providing readers with a plethora of documented information.

This is a must-read book. I want to say it again: this is a must-read book. If you are a human, you need to read *The New AI Cold War: Liberty versus Tyranny in the Age of Machine Empires*. Our toll-free number is 1-800-652-1144. The race for technological dominance is reshaping warfare, governance, freedom, and faith. You must learn more about this ever-present danger and how we can protect ourselves, our families, and our great nation. Get your own copy: 1-800-652-1144.

Bob, I want to read a statement. There are so many good statements here, but I'm looking at page 280: "The deeper struggle behind AI. From a biblical perspective, the true significance of AI extends far beyond productivity or technological breakthroughs. Public debate tends to focus on innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage."

"Yet beneath the headlines about machine learning breakthroughs and global AI races lies a far deeper struggle, one that cannot be measured in data points or processor speeds." You say this: "The story of AI is not merely one of human creativity, but of unseen spiritual forces influencing how and why technology is designed and deployed." So, this is, shall we say, spiritual warfare. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Why, I think we are ultimately in an apocalyptic spiritual battle at the present time.

Robert Maginnis: Well, like the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6, we have to put the whole armor of God on, more so today, I would argue, than perhaps anytime since he put those words on parchment. We have to recognize that our enemy is all around us. We've invited it into our home through the mechanisms of artificial intelligence. That doesn't mean all of artificial intelligence and the use of it is evil, but it can be.

It can be used for very nefarious reasons. Therefore, it's incumbent upon us to be very discerning about how we employ it and where we deploy it. It can help our education, a child that is having difficulties in a particular topic. You can use an artificial intelligence tutor that's designed to help them to really improve their thinking abilities, their performance, and so forth. But it can be used just as bad in very evil ways.

That's why I think pastors and parents and the like need to become familiar with the language of artificial intelligence. They need to know where it can be used and where it needs to be avoided and how to use it properly. If you do that, then I think it's going to be a challenge going forward. But at the same time, I think our lives will be much easier in spite of this freak, almost unexplained enthusiasm to turn over more and more of humanity's control to machines. Because the machine is going to be other than human in its judgments and its decision-making, and it's certainly not going to be Christlike.

Larry Spargimino: I understand that President Trump is unhappy with, I think it's called AI Anthropic. We're no longer doing business with them. I think it's kind of a military thing, and from what I've read, it seems like they're doing things that would take us away from our constitutional freedoms and rights. Tell us a little bit about this and how it is developing with AI Anthropic or any other AI business and organization.

Robert Maginnis: The argument was—I will tell you the real argument after I tell you the general argument. In the press, it's said that Anthropic, which of course is the Silicon Valley entity that controls what the GPT called Claude. Many people use the generative AI Claude to ask questions, to help them write things, to a host of things. So, it's a GPT.

Now, the Pentagon had contracted with Anthropic to use that algorithm and its data to help with planning on some of their secretive networks. It came to the point in the renegotiation of the contract that Anthropic's CEO says, "You're not going to use it to monitor American—the American public—and you're not going to use it for autonomous weapons and vehicles that might be involved in kinetic activities, in other words, killing people."

The Pentagon said, "Well, we don't want those restrictions." And so, the decision was made by the Trump administration that Anthropic would no longer have contracts with the U.S. government, and they would go to others. And so, OpenAI, I think Elon Musk, xAI, and Grok, they all kind of started to negotiate, and now they're going to fill the vacuum left by Claude.

Claude was used ostensibly in the takedown of Venezuela and Maduro, mostly by planning and coordinating of activities of the armed forces. The same thing was true of what we've seen in Iran, not just the decision-making and the planning, but also in some of the autonomous vehicles that were used, the suicide drones, much like what the Ukrainians and Russians are using and the like. So, you have that.

Arguably, the real reason behind the scenes is what I understand is that there was a political difference between the leadership of Anthropic and the Trump administration. And so, it's beneficial when you're talking major government contracts that you align yourself with the people in the political offices that make the decisions about who gets big contracts and who doesn't. Now, that's what I've been told behind the scenes.

So, it's far more than the guardrails that Anthropic wanted to have in place that limited the Pentagon. Now, I've written about this for Fox News and others. I do believe that we need guardrails. I believe that the American people don't want autonomous vehicles that are governed by AI to make decisions about killing human beings.

In fact, the Department of Defense, Department of War has directives that are very clear that there must be a human in the loop when there's a kill decision to be made. And yet, it would seem as if perhaps there is some question about that being violated. And then, of course, monitoring of American people.

We've always for decades had the NSA, National Security Agency, monitoring our cell phone calls, our telephone calls, the internet, and the like. They have certain restrictions, but you can see how AI, much like the Chinese use it, could be used in this country and it would violate our liberties and rob us of our privacy. Those are all major concerns. But the battlefield is being radically transformed, much like medicine, much like every aspect of life. And we need to be attuned to it.

Larry Spargimino: Well, thank you so much, Bob Maginnis, for two very informative interviews. May God continue to strengthen you as you do research, write, and speak for the kind of freedom that the Lord wants all of us to enjoy. Bob, thanks again for another great book, your second book on AI, and for the great shows that we've been doing.

Robert Maginnis: Well, thank you very much for having me.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Friends, you need a copy of Bob Maginnis's brand-new book, *The New AI Cold War: Liberty versus Tyranny*. Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to labs and tech companies. It's become the defining battleground of a new global struggle for power, control, and truth.

In *The New AI Cold War*, national security analyst and bestselling author Bob Maginnis delivers a sobering, deeply researched warning: the fight for dominance in artificial intelligence is already reshaping the future of nations and the fate of human freedom. Drawing on military history, geopolitical analysis, and a biblical worldview, Maginnis exposes the spiritual and ethical implications behind today's technological revolution.

Order *The New AI Cold War: Liberty versus Tyranny* by Bob Maginnis today. Simply call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or you can order at swrc.com. Clear, compelling, and urgent, *The New AI Cold War* equips readers to discern the times, understand the stakes, and respond with wisdom. This is more than a geopolitical conflict; it is a battle over the future of humanity and the role of the church in a rapidly changing world.

Order your copy of *The New AI Cold War* when you call 1-800-652-1144. Pastor Larry is back, ready to tackle the AI revolution. Pastor Larry, how is artificial intelligence changing our thinking and living?

Larry Spargimino: AI is gaining in popularity and global appeal. As secularism and materialism has become the worldview of many national and local leaders, AI offers convenience, guidance, and hope without moral accountability. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, AI has the potential for promoting global unity under one system, redefining morality, and promoting a godless kingdom worldwide. It is becoming increasingly more evident that it is completely in alignment with Satan's end-time goals.

In Revelation 13:11 following, we read this: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth... and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders... and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles."

Here, the whole population of Planet Earth is in view. The wonders and miracles are deceptive. A warning from Jesus was: "Take heed that no man deceive you," words found in Matthew 24:4. In his book, *AI for Mankind's Future*, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis argues that AI has many features in common with the work of the false prophet.

The Antichrist, described as a man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, establishes a worldwide movement that seeks to remove God's moral standards from the hearts of human beings. Maginnis argues that the false prophet's delineated characteristics—a powerful, persuasive, and miracle-working entity—leads to a question: could the false prophet be an AI entity to fulfill its prophetic role?

On page 299, Maginnis writes: "This reflects a dangerous spiritual trajectory, one in which machines no longer just serve but guide, influence, and even imitate the sacred." Once humankind relies on these tools for comfort, identity, and truth, many will unknowingly welcome a technological substitute for spiritual authority. Like every other human endeavor, nothing is exempted from the overarching effects of human depravity. Ignoring its reality is a sure formula for worldwide disaster.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Today, we are featuring Bob Maginnis's brand-new book, *The New AI Cold War: Liberty versus Tyranny*. Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to labs and tech companies. It's become the defining battleground of a new global struggle for power, control, and truth.

In *The New AI Cold War*, national security analyst and bestselling author Bob Maginnis delivers a sobering, deeply researched warning: the fight for dominance in artificial intelligence is already reshaping the future of nations and the fate of human freedom. Order *The New AI Cold War* by Bob Maginnis when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or order at swrc.com.

Clear, compelling, and urgent, *The New AI Cold War* equips readers to discern the times, understand the stakes, and respond with wisdom. Order your copy of *The New AI Cold War* today: 1-800-652-1144. Tomorrow, Josh Davis will reveal the gripping struggle for authority in our world with his Headlines from the End Times report.

Be sure to tune in by downloading our free SWRC mobile app, or by simply subscribing to our daily Watchman on the Wall podcast. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful friends like you. To learn more, simply visit swrc.com.