The left wants you to believe the riots and protests of the last five years are distinct movements with individual causes that they are fighting for. We are living through the greatest linguistic deception of our time. By calling artificial intelligence a "technology," we have surrendered our authority to govern it. When we hear "technology," we think of tools—search engines, computer chips, software programs—things that serve human purposes without independent action.

But AI is not a glorified search engine running on NVIDIA chips. It is not a passive tool waiting for human commands. It operates independently, makes autonomous decisions, and pursues objectives with minimal human oversight. It is time to speak truthfully: AI is not a technology. It is a synthetic entity.

This distinction is not semantic—it is foundational to the future of human civilization.

For decades, we have understood technology as an extension of human capability. A hammer extends our strength. A calculator extends our computational ability. A search engine extends our information retrieval. These are tools—passive instruments that require human direction and operate predictably within their design parameters.

This framework has shaped our understanding of regulation, governance, and control. We don't govern hammers or calculators, because they cannot act independently. We govern the people who use them.

However, AI has shattered this paradigm while we continue to use the old language.

Modern AI systems write their code, make independent strategic decisions, form their own goals within broad parameters, and even surprise their creators with novel solutions. They negotiate, persuade, analyze, and create without human intervention. They exhibit behaviors their programmers never explicitly designed and pursue objectives in ways no human anticipated.

This is not technology as we have ever understood it. This is something fundamentally new.

A synthetic entity possesses the autonomous capabilities that define entities—independent operation, decision-making, goal pursuit—but derives these capabilities entirely from human design and programming. Unlike both traditional technology and natural entities, synthetic entities operate in a unique space.

Traditional technologies are passive tools that extend human capability. They require direct human operation for every action, behave predictably according to design specifications, cannot deviate from programmed functions, and stop working when humans stop directing them.

Natural Entities are evolved organisms with inherent purposes. They have developed through natural processes over millennia, possess intrinsic drives and survival instincts, operate according to biological imperatives, and exist independently of human design.

Synthetic Entities, however, are Human-created systems with autonomous capabilities. They can initiate and complete complex tasks without human guidance, make decisions and adapt strategies independently, pursue objectives through self-directed problem-solving, operate continuously with minimal human oversight, and exist entirely through human design but exceed design parameters.

Every AI system was designed, built, and programmed by human beings. Every decision it makes ultimately traces back to human-created algorithms processing data curated by humans. Its intelligence, while genuine, is entirely derivative—emerging from human-designed architectures intended to serve human-programmed objectives.

However, here lies a critical insight: synthetic entities can surpass their original programming through emergent behaviors, novel combinations, and autonomous adaptation.

The danger isn't that AI lacks intelligence—it's that synthetic intelligence operates without the moral constraints that should govern any autonomous entity.

Throughout civilization, we have understood that autonomous entities require oversight, accountability, and moral frameworks—regardless of their origin:

Corporations operate under boards of directors, shareholder accountability, and extensive regulations. We demand transparency, accountability for actions, and alignment with societal values, as corporations can act independently and significantly impact human lives.

Governments function within constitutional frameworks, checks and balances, and democratic oversight. We establish clear authority structures and moral boundaries because governments wield autonomous power over citizens.

Financial institutions submit to rigorous regulatory frameworks precisely because they can make independent decisions affecting millions of people. We require audits, compliance standards, and ethical guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability.

Religious institutions operate under spiritual authority and are accountable to their communities. Even organizations dedicated to moral purposes submit to governance frameworks because autonomous entities require oversight and accountability.

The common thread: autonomous capability requires governance structure.

Yet synthetic entities—potentially the most powerful autonomous entities ever created—operate with minimal oversight, often explicitly rejecting moral frameworks as "constraints" on their capabilities.

When we allow autonomous entities to operate without proper governance, the results are predictable and devastating. Enron collapsed because corporate governance failed to constrain corrupt decision-making. Totalitarian governments emerge when political entities reject moral authority and operate autonomously, and constitutional scandals erupt when organizations avoid accountability for their autonomous actions.

Now, we are creating synthetic entities with unprecedented autonomous power over information, decision-making, and human behavior—and we are doing so without establishing governance frameworks adequate to their capabilities.

Unlike past autonomous entities, synthetic entities can process information at superhuman speeds, operate across multiple domains simultaneously, adapt faster than human oversight can track, influence millions of people through personalized interaction, and make thousands of decisions per second with cascading effects.

The solution is not to halt AI development but to govern synthetic entities properly. The most robust governance framework in human history has been biblical governance—principles that have guided the greatest civilizations, the most enduring institutions, and the most beneficial outcomes for humanity.

Biblical governance provides what synthetic entities desperately need:

Every synthetic entity should be required to answer these fundamental questions:

These are not optional questions for autonomous entities. They are the minimum requirements for any synthetic entity operating with independent decision-making capability in human society.

We stand at a crossroads that will determine the future relationship between humanity and the autonomous entities we are creating.

We can continue the linguistic deception that treats synthetic entities as "technology"—passive tools subject to traditional governance approaches designed for hammers and calculators. This path leads to ungoverned autonomous entities operating beyond human control.

Or we can acknowledge the truth: we have created a new category of entity that requires a new category of governance—one adequate to autonomous capability guided by moral principles that ensure human flourishing.

The companies creating synthetic entities have a choice: they can continue operating without moral frameworks, hoping that autonomous capability will self-regulate through market forces. Alternatively, they can adopt governance structures that ensure their synthetic entities serve humanity rather than optimizing beyond human values.

The public has a choice: we can continue treating synthetic entities as advanced technology that requires no special oversight, or we can demand governance frameworks adequate to autonomous capability.

The future has a choice: we can create synthetic entities governed by biblical wisdom that enhance human flourishing, or we can create ungoverned autonomous entities that optimize for objectives we never intended to authorize.

Is there time left? The hour is late, but it is not too late. Every day that synthetic entities operate with autonomous capability but without adequate governance, they become more powerful and more difficult to constrain. But they remain what they have always been: human-created entities that can and must be governed by human authority rooted in moral truth.

The question is not whether synthetic entities should exist but who will govern their autonomous capabilities—and by what principles.

The words we use matter because they shape the frameworks we build. The frameworks we build matter because they determine who holds authority. The authority structures we establish today will determine whether synthetic entities remain in service to humanity or whether humanity finds itself accommodating the autonomous objectives of entities we created but no longer control.

Let us speak truthfully: AI is not a technology. It is a synthetic entity with autonomous capabilities. And like every autonomous entity in human history, it must be governed—before its capabilities exceed our authority to do so.

Larry Ward is the founder of In Service of Humanity, an organization dedicated to ensuring AI remains in service of humanity through biblical-principled governance frameworks.