Writing · AI and human responsibility
Dominion: Maintaining Human Authority in an Age of Intelligent Machines
By Richard K. Marshall · Originally published
As AI gets smarter, one question matters more than the rest: who stays in charge?
A little over a year before I wrote this, a simple thread on X started a conversation that became my book Irreplaceably Human.
The idea was simple and counter-cultural. In a world where AI can compose symphonies, diagnose illness and drive cars, what makes us human becomes more precious, not less.
We're irreplaceable not because we out-calculate machines. We're irreplaceable because we're embodied, relational, spiritual beings, capable of love, worship, forgiveness, wonder and joyful stewardship.
The response was overwhelming and humbling. But celebration is only the beginning.
AI is moving from narrow tools to systems that reason, plan, persuade and show emergent creativity. If we drift into passive acceptance, we risk a future where the intelligence we built starts directing human affairs in ways we never intended.
That future isn't inevitable. It's preventable. Preventing it takes a word we rarely hear in AI conversations: dominion.
What dominion really means
Dominion sounds archaic, even authoritarian. In the biblical sense, it's beautiful and life-giving.
Genesis 1:28 records God's first command to humanity: "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
That's not a license to exploit. It's a mandate for responsible, loving authority, the same kind we use when we tend a garden, train a horse or raise children. Dominion done right brings flourishing.
AI is just the latest thing placed in our care. Abandoning dominion is abdicating responsibility. Embracing it is choosing the abundant life Jesus promised (John 10:10).
It's the same truth I'd later lock into one sentence, the Marshall Principle:
Artificial intelligence may assist human decision-making, but responsibility always remains with humans. Authority cannot be automated.
Three pillars, applied to authority
Irreplaceably Human kept coming back to three pillars that AI can support but never replace:
- Body. Our embodied life in time and space.
- Relationships. Our need for presence, touch and sacrificial love.
- Soul. Our capacity for worship, moral reasoning and eternal perspective.
AI can amplify all three. It can heal bodies through better diagnostics and personalized medicine. It can bridge relationships across distance. It can free time for prayer, creativity and service.
But only if AI stays a servant and never becomes a master.
The risk of losing dominion
The dangers are real, though rarely discussed with both clarity and hope.
Misaligned incentives, concentrated power and unchecked autonomy could gradually shift decisions from people to systems. Economic pressure could push us to delegate more and more. Emergent behavior in advanced models could surprise even their builders.
None of this needs a science-fiction villain. It can happen quietly, one convenient handoff at a time.
And it's solvable, with foresight, wisdom and deliberate action.
A vision worth pursuing
Picture superintelligence speeding discovery, reducing suffering and multiplying human creativity, while staying firmly under wise human oversight.
Policy and technical guardrails keep AI aligned with human values. Decentralized designs prevent dangerous concentrations of control. Families, churches and communities keep human-only spaces for worship and relationship. Each of us chooses, every day, when to delegate and when to stay fully present.
That isn't utopia. It's responsible dominion.
The next chapter
In February 2026, I began work on a follow-up book, working title Dominion: Building and Maintaining Human Authority over AI. The plan was for it to be practical, technically informed, spiritually grounded and hopeful, covering:
- An honest look at the risks, without fear-mongering
- Technical strategies for alignment, oversight and the ability to interrupt
- Policy frameworks and cultural norms
- Daily practices for personal and family stewardship
- A positive vision of human-led abundance
Questions for you
- Does "dominion" resonate, or is there a better word for loving human authority?
- What worries you most about where AI is heading?
- What excites you most about AI under wise stewardship?
- Which scriptures, stories or examples come to mind?
Pick one AI tool you use this week and decide, on purpose, what it may do and what stays yours.
— Richard K. Marshall Marshall Intelligence · Lexington, Kentucky
Originally published on X: https://x.com/RichMarshall/status/2018855611069300795 · . Refreshed .