CU President’s Fellow and IBM Master Inventor Ng Urges Students to “Win Your Race”
“I’ll give you a new commandment right now. Love one another as I have loved you. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have loved one for another” (John 13:34-35).
With these words of Jesus, President Gerson Moreno-Riaño opened a special Community Chapel that addressed the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. He reminded the Cornerstone University community of this year’s theme and charge: “Run to Jesus because He is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s the one who can heal us and comfort us and give us direction.” Together, students, faculty, and staff paused to pray for one another, for Cornerstone, the Kirk family, and for the nation.
Introducing Joanna Ng, one of Cornerstone’s President’s Fellows and student mentor, President Moreno-Riaño described her as a master inventor with more than 30 patents at IBM and a leader in Silicon Valley innovation. Yet above all, he emphasized, she is a follower of Jesus Christ — someone who once profoundly said to him, “I am willing now to give my life for the gospel in Jesus.”
In her chapel message to a special gathering of students, faculty and staff, Ng spoke on “How to Win Your Race in This World, in This AI Era.” She urged the community to discern the times, guard their hearts, and never lose sight of Christ. “If you forget everything, then the way to live a life of victory in your race, in this confusing AI era, is never forget: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.”
Ng warned that the digital world is not spiritually neutral. Every click, app, and online choice plants a seed in the spiritual realm that eventually bears fruit. Algorithms are designed to capture attention, she explained, and when our attention is stolen, so too is our sense of purpose in Christ. “The currency of the digital realm is your attention,” she said, reminding listeners that the spiritual realm’s true currency is faith in Jesus.
She also urged discernment in how we use artificial intelligence. AI is powerful, yet unreliable, sometimes producing errors disguised as truth — what engineers call “hallucinations.” If we disengage our minds and place blind trust in machines, Ng warned, we risk manipulation and even emotional entanglement with technology. She pointed to tragic cases where false intimacy with AI led to despair and loss.
Drawing from Isaiah 60, Ng reminded the community: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” In a world where darkness spreads through both culture and technology, followers of Christ must know who they are and live out their God-given worth. “As beloved children of the King, we are called to expose deception, guard truth, and be the light the world longs to see,” she said.
Ng concluded by calling students to renew their relationship with Jesus, breaking free from distraction and shame to walk in His Spirit. She prayed that the Cornerstone community would run their race with clarity and courage in this AI era — unshakable in their identity, confident in God’s truth, and shining as His light in a world longing for hope.
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