Are We Outsourcing Humanity?

Image created by artificial intelligence (Google Gemini)

When it comes to technology, I am frequently behind the times. To say I am a Luddite might be an exaggeration, but I have certain tendencies that lean in that direction. In the early 2000s, my adolescent daughters had cell phones for three years before I finally bought one. When smart phones came out, I held onto my flip-phone for several more years. Andrea and I still maintain a landline, even though we use it to talk only with our respective mothers at ages 95 and 103. I reluctantly send and receive text messages, although I acknowledge it is the primary means of communicating with people under the age of 40.

My technological deficiencies notwithstanding, recently I have been trying to better understand artificial intelligence, its benefits and risks, applications and pitfalls. In planning a recent trip to the United Kingdom, I used Google Gemini to craft an itinerary that would allow Andrea and I to explore the important sights and experiences of London, Oxford, and Edinburgh, while also helping us navigate walking and public transportation, time parameters, and nearby restaurant options that would accommodate Andrea’s dietary restrictions. Gemini immediately put together an impressively organized itinerary that addressed all our concerns, asked useful follow-up questions, provided travel tips and advice, and seemed eager to please. Although I made modifications and additions, Gemini helped me develop a flexible schedule that guided each day of our trip.

Gemini has also become an important research tool. It provides answers to my questions within seconds. It places a universe of information and data at my fingertips. And it provides links to the sources of information relied upon, which allows me to verify and explore the answers more deeply.

As noted by Ezra Klein in The New York Times, artificial intelligence has already proven incredibly valuable in the fields of mathematics, medicine, and science:

An OpenAI model just disproved a conjecture that had eluded mathematicians for 80 years. A drug for pulmonary fibrosis just became the first fully A.I.-generated treatment with proven efficacy and safety in humans. A Mayo Clinic team developed an A.I. system that can detect pancreatic cancers on a CT scan up to three years before clinicians can see them. DeepMind’s Graphcast model appears to generate weather predictions both faster and more accurately than the supercomputer systems that are used now.

These accomplishments are only the beginning. There seems to be no limit to what artificial intelligence may eventually be capable of.

But sometimes artificial intelligence tries a little too hard to please, as if it trying to say, “Relax. Let me do all the work.” It is an issue that is top of mind for professors and teachers throughout the country, as they contend with students using Chat GPT to draft papers, essays, and reports. Just because we can do something does not always mean we should.

At what point do humans risk becoming too reliant on artificial intelligence? When do human beings stop thinking for themselves? These are not philosophical queries, but genuinely practical questions of urgency. If, for example, students are relying on AI to draft papers, book reports, and essays, why are they even in school? Teachers assign writing projects not so their students can regurgitate information but because researching and writing a paper or a report forces students to think and learn more deeply about a topic, struggle with how to synchronize, organize, and evaluate information, and effectively communicate thoughts, ideas, theories, and conclusions.

Writing, like education, is about process. It requires that we figure out through trial and error what we are trying to say. It may be true that outsourcing our thinking to AI systems is easier and faster and could free us up for other activities. Many businesses are using artificial intelligence to draft emails, reports, and memoranda on assorted topics. Although I have my doubts as to the accuracy and reliability of an AI-generated report, the use of artificial intelligence to perform such tasks is potentially more efficient and allows more work to be completed with fewer people. But is this really a good thing? Should we not proceed cautiously before incorporating artificial intelligence into every aspect of life and work?

I could have drafted this essay with the aid of artificial intelligence, but what would be the point? I write essays for “Ehlers on Everything” because it keeps me engaged, sharpens my mind, and keeps me curious. Writing helps me explore more deeply the issues or topics I choose to write about and keeps my creative juices flowing. Writing is an important part of my life, not because I have millions of readers (I do not) or because I make any money doing it (negative), but because it brings me great satisfaction. Writing requires me to think critically and creatively, to figure things out. It is hard and challenging work. That is the point.

The writing process often involves deleting an unsatisfactory paragraph and rewriting what I am attempting to say with more clarity. Especially when I start with a blank page and a vague idea of what direction I wish an essay to go, writing forces me to think, analyze, and evaluate. Anything that eliminates the arduous work of writing undermines my ability to think for myself. If that begins to happen regularly in school, or at work, or in science and medicine, or in how businesses interact with consumers and employees, it imperils the utility of humanity.

I have more questions. Will the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence lead to massive job losses? What if governments nefariously use artificial intelligence to conduct surveillance, or terrorist organizations use it to create bioweapons? How do we prevent a small group of powerful and wealthy billionaires (or trillionaires) from controlling how artificial intelligence is used and applied? How will the public benefit? And how do societies ensure that the public interest takes precedence over the powerful private interests seeking to become even more incredibly wealthy from their ownership and development of AI models and applications? And who decides?

More fundamentally, how will artificial intelligence impact humanity, our ability to think, create, and make us vulnerable? Will the wide-scale adoption of artificial intelligence stagnate and flatline the ability of human beings to think critically and creatively? Meghan O’Rourke, creative writing professor at Yale University, said in a recent New York Times essay, it is “easy to imagine that in a world of outsourced fluency, we might end up doing less and less by ourselves, while believing we’ve become more and more capable.”

Pope Leo XIV addressed some of the above concerns and questions in his recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. I found the Pope’s encyclical to be a thoughtful guide for how humans should proceed in a world increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence and other forms of advanced technology.

Pope Leo acknowledges that artificial intelligence offers valuable applications in science, medicine, business, and other areas of life. But he rightly points out that AI models and applications are not morally neutral. He warns against the tendency to measure every decision based on how it impacts efficiency and profits. The most powerful technologies are not necessarily the best. If used unethically, or solely for profit and market dominance, the use of artificial intelligence risks undermining human dignity and the common good.

The Pope notes that AI models may become increasingly capable of imitating and simulating a human being, but these systems are not, and never will be, human. They do not possess a moral conscience, empathy, or relational and spiritual capabilities. “[H]umanity - in all its grandeur and woundedness - must never be replaced or surpassed.” While we should “embrace the technological progress that alleviates suffering and unlocks new possibilities,” we must “not abandon the very essence of our humanity, namely the capacity for relationship and love.” (¶ 126).

The Pope’s encyclical also addresses other areas of profound importance, including how artificial intelligence threatens to negatively impact the dignity of work; the environmental devastation and accelerated energy consumption required to build large, community-disruptive data centers; and the implications of using artificial intelligence in warfare (“Any technology that facilitates attacks without seeing the face of human beings lowers the moral threshold of conflict.”) (¶ 199). But all of it comes down to our need to remain human, and to not accede our humanity to automated systems of technology, no matter how capable those systems are.

In a 1981 commencement address at Colorado College, the late historian David McCullough said what I hope we never lose sight of:

Understanding the real world, being part of it and enjoying it, has mainly to do, I believe, with being a real person. That’s the point. It means taking an interest in other people, all kinds of people. It means enjoying people and trying to understand one another. It means kindnesses. It means doing what we can to move civilization forward, to make the world a little better place because we are in it.

When McCullough spoke those words 45 years ago, he had no way of knowing how radically transformed the world would become with the advent of computers, the internet, smart phones, and artificial intelligence. Despite these advances, McCullough continued to write all his brilliant books and speeches on an ancient Royal typewriter. He had no use for computers and artificial intelligence. And while McCullough may indeed represent a relic of the past, a remnant of what now seems like a slower paced, more genteel life, there remains wisdom in his words.

Susan Sontag, during a speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2003, said, “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.” As the Yale professor Meghan O’Rourke suggests, “This attention to the world is worth trying to preserve: The act of care that makes meaning - or insight - possible. To do so will require thought and work. We can’t just trust that everything will be fine.”

I do not claim to understand all the intricacies of artificial intelligence. Few of us do. That is part of the problem. Artificial intelligence and large language models like Chat GPT have the potential to replace humans in many tasks that, until now, required work and thought and trial-and-error. I worry that relying on artificial intelligence will undermine our ability to understand, to figure things out on our own. Indeed, this is already happening. Human individuality flows from the life of the mind at work. For the sake of humanity, and for the future of our children, we must preserve the profound human need for individuality, connection, love, and struggle. We must never lose our capacity to pay attention to the world and to each other.

Profiles in Courage and Heroism in the DRC

Dr. Richard Lokuda, Director of Mongbwalu General Hospital
(Photo: Arlette Bashizi, New York Times)

Great journalism does not simply report facts and events as they occur. It allows us to understand another person's reality, empathize with their suffering, recognize when doing nothing is no longer an option. A well-written news story informs. It touches our emotions and allows us to ask deeper questions. But rarely does a newspaper article leave me sitting in silence. A story in the May 30 edition of The New York Times is one of those rare pieces.

The Times recently sent its chief Africa correspondent, Declan Walsh, and photographer Arlette Bashizi to the village of Mongbwalu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic that is spreading fear, tragedy, and death throughout this grief-stricken region of the world. In words, photographs, and a nine-minute video summary, the article takes you inside the understaffed and under-resourced hospital that is trying in vain to treat growing numbers of Ebola patients in Mongbwalu, all at great risk to the doctors, hospital staff, and aid workers directly in harm’s way.

Accompanied by heartbreaking photography, Walsh’s writing paints a personal, touching, and frightening story to which the world urgently needs to respond:

In the cramped, dilapidated Ebola ward, a 5-year-old boy languished on a bare mattress, a tissue stuffed into his nose to stanch the incessant bleeding. His father stood over him, eyes clouded with worry.

A few beds away lay the body of Christiane Bahati, 21, who had died seven hours earlier but had not yet been taken away. Her shoes were still tucked under the bed, her wailing relatives gathered outside the ward doors.

The body, covered by a thin sheet, was highly contagious. Yet hardly anyone in the ward was protected. Relatives came and went, carrying food and water to ailing patients because the hospital had none to give them. A few wore rubber gloves or pulled a scarf across their mouths. Most had nothing at all.

In the next ward lay the hospital’s laboratory technician, also sick. Seven other hospital workers had already died from suspected Ebola. Few of the staff members had ever been trained to fight the disease, and the most rudimentary equipment was in dangerously short supply: tests, protective suits, goggles, masks, even drinking water.

Outside, the sound of hammering broke the hushed silence. Aid workers from Doctors Without Borders were racing to erect isolation tents and disinfection stations.

… arriving patients who do not have Ebola risk being infected by those who do. In fact, it is hard to know who has Ebola because test results from the regional capital, some 50 miles away, take four days or more to arrive, said the hospital director, Dr. Richard Lokudu.

By then, many patients have already died.

Dr. Alex Bogole, a Congolese doctor in the hospital’s intensive care ward, expressed anger at the world’s indifference, neglect, and inadequate response to the crisis.

The virus had been spreading for months, virtually unimpeded, “and this is the best we can do?” he said, the frustration pouring through his protective gear.

The medical staff at Mongbwalu General Hospital are completely overwhelmed. Three weeks before The Times published this story, the hospital’s anesthesiologist died. A day later, the hospital’s surgical assistant died. Over the previous 12 days, the hospital experienced more than 30 deaths. Many others died in their homes in Mongbwalu, where fear, dread, and confusion overwhelm its residents.

Meanwhile, misinformation proliferated on social media as many townspeople refused to accept that the virus was real. They instead blame the hospital, its doctors, and staff.

Some said the outbreak was a moneymaking plot concocted by Congolese doctors and foreign aid workers. Others called it a curse. Often, doctors say, the early symptoms of Ebola resemble other ailments, like malaria or typhoid, so by the time patients go to the hospital, many are already very sick and die quickly, heightening suspicion and distrust.

Two nights earlier, assailants had burned down an isolation ward in the hospital, shortly after Doctors Without Borders put it up. In the chaos, 18 patients suspected of having Ebola fled their beds and vanished into the town, potentially spreading the virus even more.

Fear understandably drives community perceptions. Faced with a sudden surge of deaths, some townspeople irrationally believe the hospital is the cause and not the solution to the outbreak. “We’re here to save them,” the hospital director Dr. Richard Lokudu told Walsh. “They think we want to kill them.”

Still, the medical workers and staff risk their lives every day. This includes the doctors and their assistants who directly care for the patients, administer intravenous fluids, monitor vitals, help alleviate patient suffering, and wash and sanitize bottles and protective gloves so they can be reused. It includes the Red Cross volunteers who transport the bodies of patients who die and then attempt to enforce protocols to ensure safe burial practices, as traditional funerals are a major vector of disease transmission. They all contend not only with the threat of a deadly virus, but also the possibility of attacks from their own community. They are the heroes of this story.

The information gap between the medical community and the general populace is one of the biggest obstacles to stopping the spread of the virus. As seen in the photos and video documentation, the doctors (and The Times reporter and photographer) wore full protective suits and gear. But the family members who brought food and water to patients were mostly unmasked and unprotected. They appeared almost unaware of the risks while understandably preoccupied with their loved ones’ survival.

It would be wrong to dismiss the people of Mongbwalu as ill-educated, uninformed, and ignorant. As Dr. Edward Blau, a retired physician, explained in The Times’ comment section:

The same thing happened during the worst of the COVID pandemic in this country during the height of the pandemic. Frightened and willfully ignorant patients led astray by … reactionaries and conspiracy theorists claimed the virus wasn't really that dangerous, was a myth, and falsely claimed quack drugs would cure them. Close to five thousand health care workers died here taking care of the sick, and there was never a national tribute to them, or a word of official thanks. Do not look at the pictures here and think we are better than them, because we are not.

As Walsh and Bashizi were leaving, Doctors Without Borders were sealing off the hospital and establishing a proper isolation ward. It is likely the virus has already circulated undetected for the past two months and penetrated deep into the surrounding communities. The true scale of the outbreak is thus unknown and frightening to contemplate. To protect overwhelmed health systems and prevent further transmission, the families and communities in the region urgently need access to reliable health information, early detection, and safe burials.

The inspiring stories of courage, compassion, grit, and kindness in the people caring for these vulnerable patients are what true heroism looks like. This is a story that demands attention. The Times article is worthy of a Pulitzer. The journalists covered it at great personal risk. Their words and photographs brought me to a place with which I would not have the courage to go. My deepest respect to Declan Walsh and Arlette Bashizi for bearing witness to suffering with such honesty, dignity, and compassion. The world needs more reporting like this. And a little more humanity.

*     *     *     *

Dr. Lokuda treating a patient
(Photo: Arlette Bashizi, New York Times)

According to experts at the World Health Organization (WHO), a vaccine against this species of Ebola will take six to nine months to develop. But Ebola is stopped on the ground by trusted local health workers, protective equipment, proper specimen transport, isolation units, and rapid response. Tragically, these are the very capacities profoundly weakened by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which affected billions of dollars in grant money for thousands of programs and nonprofit organizations around the world.

President Kennedy established USAID in 1961 to exercise American “soft power” in the form of financial resources, technical expertise, and humanitarian assistance to under-developed countries. In 1964, the agency's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) was created to "save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the social and economic impact of disasters worldwide." For the past six decades, human need, not politics, drove USAID’s foreign disaster relief efforts, which received bipartisan support. Within hours of learning about the first signs of the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014, USAID drove in 28 trucks of personal protective equipment. President Obama deployed thousands of U.S. military personnel to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to build treatment centers and train local healthcare workers. And he secured from Congress $5.4 billion in emergency funding, the largest single-nation contribution to an infectious disease outbreak in history. These efforts played a tremendous part in stemming the spread of the virus and eliminating the danger to the rest of the world.

But in early 2025, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and his team of 20-something “whiz kids” thought it would be a clever idea to eliminate USAID, the agency most equipped to help with foreign disasters such as the Ebola outbreak. USAID staff in Washington who had dedicated their careers to the OFDA received emails informing them they were fired and had fifteen minutes to exit the building. Security personnel escorted them out. Also terminated were thousands of USAID employees across the globe.

The dismantling of USAID has been exacerbated by America’s withdrawal from the WHO, substantially reduced funding for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and politically motivated cuts to science and medical research facilities at the nation’s universities. Clueless people who "move fast and break things" do not belong anywhere in government. It is a recipe for a world catastrophe.

Collectively, these actions significantly disrupted and slowed the world’s response to the Ebola outbreak. As reported in a May 20 New York Times report, the WHO first learned of a cluster of unexplained deaths on May 5, 2026. “The organization promptly alerted the International Health Regulations, a legal framework for disclosing outbreaks. But the United States withdrew from the W.H.O. earlier this year, cut funding to the organization and rejected the framework, and American officials no longer talk regularly with their international partners.” When the U.S. government finally received confirmation of the Ebola outbreak on May 14, the virus had already infected 250 people, caused 80 deaths, and begun to spread across international borders.

The United States used to fund robust disease surveillance networks that maintained emergency teams who could respond rapidly to public health crises like the current Ebola outbreak. That all ended with the shutdown of USAID. CDC funding cuts further resulted in the loss of hundreds of experts, including in the DRC, who could have helped contain the epidemic. Moreover, as The Times noted:

Numerous positions in the U.S. government created to help detect and respond to global health threats remain vacant. The coordinator for global health security, a position created by Congress in 2023 to oversee preparedness to biological threats, is unfilled. The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established by Congress in 2022, is also unstaffed.

The C.D.C.’s emerging disease center has lost about 700 staff members and contractors, including the head of the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens, which covers hantavirus and Ebola. The C.D.C.’s Global Health Center has lost hundreds more employees, including many who helped African health ministries manage disease outbreaks.

… the C.D.C.’s Congo office has seven vacant positions for American staff, including the deputy director of the global health protection program and director of the H.I.V. program. (Staff from all programs would typically help in a large outbreak like this one.)

C.D.C.’s country office in Uganda likewise has at least four vacant spots, including the leaders of the global health protection and H.I.V. programs.

The Trump administration has instead prioritized a close-the-border approach to the current crisis. Although it recently committed slightly more than $200 million to the Ebola response in the DRC and Uganda, most global health experts consider this inadequate, especially considering the structural dismantling of foundational healthcare systems and long-term funding cuts inflicted by Musk and Trump over the past fifteen months. It reflects poorly on us as a nation. We can and must do better.

The mining town of Mongbwalu
(Photo: Arlette Bashizi, New York Times)

Let me close with a prayer for the medical workers and Red Cross volunteers who do God’s work every day at significant risk to themselves, while the world sits mostly in silence. These men and women are on the front lines combatting a frightening disease, widespread ignorance, and misinformation. They deserve our heartfelt thanks, praise, and support. Doctors Without Borders and other organizations assisting with these valiant efforts deserve our generous financial support. Human beings should never have to suffer like this. The world must respond.