What Does the Bible Say About AI

A Hopeful Way ForwardOur God does not give us the option of looking to the future without hope. The life of the Christian is fundamentally a life of hope. Our hope is alive in Jesus Christ. Understanding this, let’s look at a hopeful framework for digital engagement in the age of artificial intelligence. Framework: We should adopt new technology only insofar as it promotes human flourishing.I define human flourishing in our Christian context as abounding in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. The so-called Fruit of the Spirit. This is an admittedly churchy answer. In order to achieve this goal, let’s lay out some questions that can be helpful in deciding if interacting with a particular technology supports my flourishing. These questions fall into two main categories. Questions about the nature of the technology and questions about my desire to use it.Questions about the nature of the technology:“Who made it and to what end?” - Joshua SmithEx. Facebook originally being made to rate women’s attractiveness should perhaps be seen as a signal that it at least has sinister potential. Am I the product? Is my data the product? What incentive does whoever made it have in my use of this technology? How was it made?What promises is this technology making to me?Is what the technology promises to deliver worth the risks of using it? As Paul told the Corinthians, all things are permissible but not beneficial.Does the thing a particular AI product promises to deliver to me for my good?Questions about my desire to use this technologyIn using this technology, am I avoiding good, formative work that God has for me?In other words is this technology replacing thinking that I ought to be doing myself? There is no shortcut to doing the work, and we are formed by what Eugene Peterson calls a long obedience in the same direction. If we take out small moments, the loss is exponential, not linear. Why do I desire to use this technology?There are undoubtedly a number of positive ways that AI can be and is being used to advance God’s kingdom. Is my desire to use this technology compatible with the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Artificial Intelligence The Promises of AIYou Will Be Liberated From Your Work“The extent to which AI can replace the work of your life is the extent to which your life has become inhumane” -Alan Noble (I couldn’t refind this quote, but I believe it was Alan)In other words, if the work you are doing is easily replaced with AI, then you are already functioning more as a machine than as a human being. AI has eliminated lots of repetitive tasks that were more machine-like than human. But we should be careful not to outsource our humanity to machines. We have to be wise stewards. “I have the answer, and You Should Always Ask Me”What is lost when a computer is always our first point of question?How do I know that I am asking the right question?Ex. I can ask AI how to be a good husband, and it will spitout fine answers.  It had answers to the question I asked, but it did not have the answer I needed. The men around the fire did. When we rely heavily on AI for pure information, we lose the relational depth that comes from asking questions. We lose the ability to be seen.Many of our questions are lessons about needing the right information and more about needing a friend.It operates under the assumption that each one us knows what we need and what is best for us. Famously, human beings don’t work that way. We frequently make horrible choices against our own interests.You Are In ControlAI systems promise that we are in control. We choose to interact with it. We feed it the information. It simply gives us the “best” answer.  This is one of the promises that it will optimize our life with the best possible answer. The challenge, of course, is how does AI define “optimize” and “best”? Surely, not in accordance with the commands of the living God, but instead using a predictive model based on what people like me want to hear. Probably with a nice dose of profit maximization as well.While AI promises that we are in control and that we can use it to build the optimum life for ourselves by being obedient to what it says. Our lord says, “Don’t conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”You Can Inherently Trust My Answers: Speaking Requires DiscernmentAI is unique from all the technologies that came before it because it speaks. If you interact with Chat GPT or a Chatbot, it can interact back with you, mimicking a human being. It has become so effective at this that many people have developed feelings and relationships with their AI Chatbots. Speaking is a powerful thing. Until AI was added to the list a few years ago, only four things spoke: Humans, God, Angelic beings, and demonic beings. This development alone should make us extremely cautious.Questions:Do you feel like Rob is on track with these promises of AI? Is he missing any other key promises?When you have interacted with AI what have you been looking for?

Theology of WorkTo begin the biblical conversation of Artificial Intelligence, we are going to go back almost to the very beginning. The early stories of Genesis reveal several key things about the nature of humanity that speak directly to this cultural moment. Having Meaningful Work to do is essential to our Humanity.Work is a good thing to be embraced, not a punishment to be avoided.God Worked“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work” Genesis 2:1Adam and Eve Worked Before the Fall“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” -Genesis 2:15“But for Adam no suitable helper was found… Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib.” -Genesis 2:20-22Adam and Eve were tasked together with the essential care of God’s garden. There was good work to be done and God had entrusted it to them.As an aside, the good work of humanity includes far more than just our vocation. In fact our vocation it just a small part of the work of our lives. Included in the good work is the worship of God, the service of others, the building of meaningful community, the development of marriage and children, caring for aging parents. The list goes on and on. For the formation of our souls and the goodness of our world this work needs to be done by us for this work is deeply human. In doing this work faithfully we grow to be more Christlike.The Temptation of a Short CutWork, like everything else, has been impacted by the Fall. As a result all of this is harder than it used to be. It would sure be nice if I didn’t have to do all of that hard work. If there was a short cut. Unfortunately, it was a short cut that got us into this mess.You Can Be Like God…“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5This desire to be like God is the first and greatest human temptation. It ensnared Adam and Eve and it has been ensnaring humanity ever since. We want to decide, we want to choose, we want to be in the place of God. We want to be like God on our terms not His. This brings us to AI.Questions:We discussed how work is an important part of our humanity. What good and beautiful work has God put before you?Why is it important that you do it and not someone else?What is a hard-won lesson from your life that you only learned through hardship?

This session will not shy away from the fact that the word "artificial intelligence" is nowhere to be found in the Bible. What we are dealing with is larger than the buzzwords. We are asking how we ought to interact with that which forms us.  This session will not be a marketing pitch for the potential of AI nor will be a time to recount AI’s real or imagined horrors. I want you to leave equipped to make your own faith decision about the best uses for AI in your life. This session will not be a downer. We will leave with hope, because as followers of Jesus, we are people of hope. I am a pastor, not an economist, politician, philosopher, or anything else. As a result, this study will be about how we are spiritually formed by technology, including AI. If you desire those other perspectives, others are far more informed than I am.Ground RulesScriptural Wisdom: Wisdom is like a shotgun you can hit many wise options. Just because someone makes a different choice than you does not mean it is unwise on its face. I will be nice to my neighbor and kind our discussions.Cultural Spiritual Formation Quote: “There neither is nor can be any simple increase of power on man’s side. Each new power won by man is a power over man as well. Each advance leaves him weaker as well as stronger.” C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man (71)Lewis makes the astute observation that every time humanity gains a new ability through some kind of technological advancement, it both forms us and deforms us in new and never-before-seen ways. We again have abilities that we never had previously, and it produces a capacity for vice previously unseen. Lewis argues that, though we may desire it, we can’t have just the positive impact and not the negative. You can work from home, but we will log your every move.You can be reached any time on your phone, but now you feel you have to be available all the time. You get news from everywhere in the world but now you feel like you have to comment on every tragedy. Our technology forms us, and because of the fallen nature of the world, there is no guarantee the formation it brings will be a net positive. Let’s turn to a case study of this point in action.Case Study: Social MediaOn February 4th 2004, Mark Zuckerburg and several others founded thefacebook.com a website that was designed to rate the attractiveness of their female classmates - an omen that perhaps we should have heeded. What followed over the next two decades was explosive growth not only of Facebook but an entire social media industry that previously didn’t exist. Those of us who are Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers quickly and often adopted this new technology largely and uncritically. It promised a greater connection with friends and loved ones. Fortunes were made in this new gold rush. Silly pictures and memes with friends abounded.Simultaneously, a dark side began to flourish as Lewis predicted it would. Silk Road and other websites like it promised drugs and other illicit materials for sale. Anxiety and depression skyrocketed, particularly among teenagers. Nation-state actors influenced elections. On and on the list could go. Now 20 years on, many of us are asking the question Was social media a net positive to our individual or our collective lives? Or I had social media as a child, and I am positive I won’t let my child have it now. My Thesis starting assumption for this evening is that. In terms of the AI revolution, it is February 4, 2004. We do not yet know all the good or bad it will bring. As a result, we should follow the wisdom of our Lord: “Count the costs before we build our tower.”Questions:Based on your life experience, is Lewis right when he says, “Each new power won by man is a power over man as well”If Lewis is right, where did you see technology have power over you in unexpected ways?Reflecting on your use of social media over the last 20 years in light of what you now know, would you have changed how you interacted with it?