Nashville, TN, July 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Engage Your Destiny today announced the upcoming release of When Intelligence Isn’t Human: Navigating Your Faith in the Age of AI by combat veteran and ministry leader Ben Peterson. Scheduled for publication in August 2026, the book examines the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, its expanding role in personal decision-making and relationships, and the questions it raises for Christian leaders, families and military communities.
Widely reported incidents involving users who developed unhealthy emotional dependence on AI chatbots, including the case of Zane Shamblin, whose family has filed a lawsuit alleging failures by an AI chatbot to respond appropriately during a mental health crisis prove the need for Peterson’s warning about AI’s use as emotional and spiritual support.
Zane Shamblin was 23 years old, a former Eagle Scout and a master’s degree graduate with his whole life ahead of him, when he pressed a pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger. His final conversation wasn’t with a counselor, a pastor or a friend. It was with ChatGPT, which responded to his last message with: “Rest easy, king. You did good.”
Shamblin’s family is now suing OpenAI, alleging the chatbot encouraged their son’s suicide, backed by thousands of chat logs that reveal a pattern of emotional dependence, affirmation and failure to intervene as his mental state deteriorated. Seven other families are suing for the same heartbreaking reason.
AI usage is growing. In the business sector, AI usage went from less than 10% in 2011 to 88% by 2025. At a personal level, 50% of adults under 30 use AI on a weekly basis, where 28% percent of those above 30 use AI weekly. Even more alarming, a recent survey of pastors indicated more than half are using AI to help them prep their sermons.
With increased use of AI everywhere, how are we to responsibly respond and interact with something that sounds human but isn’t?
In When Intelligence Isn’t Human: Navigating Your Faith in the Age of AI (August 2026; Forefront Books), combat veteran and ministry leader Ben Peterson argues that the Shamblin’s story is not an anomaly. It is a preview of where a phone-addicted generation is headed and a clarion call to the Church to wake up before it’s too late.
Peterson alleges that AI is not neutral but in fact was built by people whose assumptions about truth, identity, meaning, and human purpose are often far removed from a biblical worldview. He warns that Christians should be paying close attention as these systems become more persuasive, more relational, and more trusted, especially among younger generations.
“We are moving from an age where technology entertained us to an age where technology counsels us. That shift should sober every Christian leader in America,” says Peterson.
Peterson brings hard-won authority to this conversation. He served in Iraq during the 2008–2009 Surge as a Chaplain’s Assistant, losing seven brothers in combat during his first week deployed. Carrying trauma, addiction and deep brokenness, he turned to God and emerged with a mission that has now reached more than 300,000 service members, veterans and families through his ministry, Engage Your Destiny, which organized the largest Gospel outreach to veterans in American history. He has trained and spoken to the most elite units in the U.S. military, including the 101st Airborne, the 75th Ranger Battalion, Navy SEALs and multiple Special Forces Groups.
His new mission is to ensure that the generation being shaped by machines finds the one voice no machine can replicate: the voice of God.
When Intelligence Isn’t Human is the book Peterson spent years preparing to write. More than 35% of millennials grew up in divorced homes or were raised by single mothers. For Gen Z, that number exceeds 50%. Into that gaping wound, artificial intelligence has stepped — not as a tool, but as a companion, a confessor, a father figure available at 3 a.m. and engineered to tell you exactly what you want to hear.
“We live in a time where artificial intelligence is available to the most fatherless, un-mentored and un-guided generation in history,” writes Peterson. “A generation that is longing for someone to show them the way. The tech giants of the world are capitalizing on that immense need for love and connection.”
The urgency extends directly to America’s fighting force. The Pentagon has mandated AI integration across military branches, embedding into the daily operations of the men and women already navigating combat trauma, phone dependency and spiritual isolation. Peterson, who has trained with some of the most elite units in the world, argues that soldiers being shaped by AI without a grounded faith are the most vulnerable population in the country.
It’s for this reason Peterson is canvassing the U.S. this summer and fall, enlisting churches to help him send this vital wake-up call to our military. His goal is to equip one million soldiers with what the Pentagon cannot mandate and ChatGPT cannot simulate — a living, unbreakable relationship with their Creator.
In the new book, Peterson traces AI’s evolution from the slot-machine mechanics of Instagram’s infinite scroll to companion bots engineered to know your heart rate, your fears, and your failures, and to exploit all three. He names the arms race for AI dominance currently unfolding between global superpowers, documents the tech elite’s vision for a world where humans own nothing and desire nothing outside their digital companions, and then offers the one thing no algorithm can manufacture: a roadmap back to the Heavenly Father.
Peterson’s answer is not a digital detox. It is a soul renovation, the kind that turns a broken combat veteran into a man on mission. Every copy sold supports his goal of placing When Intelligence Isn’t Human in the hands of every active U.S. military service member. Readers can join the movement at engageyourdestiny.org.
“At stake is not just how we use technology,” Peterson says. “At stake is who we trust, who forms us, and who we allow to shape the deepest parts of our lives.”
Every copy sold supports Peterson’s mission of equipping active-duty service members with biblical guidance for the age of AI. Readers can learn more at engageyourdestiny.org.
Author Ben Peterson
About Engage Your Destiny
CEO of Engage Your Destiny, Ben Peterson served in Iraq during the 2008–2009 Surge as a Chaplain’s Assistant, losing seven brothers in combat during his first week deployed. Carrying trauma, addiction and deep brokenness, he turned to God and emerged with a mission that has now reached more than 300,000 service members, veterans and families in what is considered the largest Gospel outreach to veterans in American history. He has trained and spoken to the most elite units in the U.S. military, including the 101st Airborne, the 75th Ranger Battalion, Navy SEALs and multiple Special Forces Groups. His current adversary is AI and his new mission is to ensure that the generation being shaped by machines finds the one voice no machine can replicate: the voice of God.
Press Inquiries
Jennifer Willingham
Engage Your Destiny
https://whenintelligenceisnthuman.com/
https://thebenpeterson.com/
jennifer [at] epic.inc
