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Since the launch of ChatGPT 3 in the fall of 2022, there has been a prevailing sense of panic surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). It is tempting to succumb to the negative hype. Renowned inventors, business leaders, and AI experts are signing letters and writing op-eds about the impending doomsday for humanity. Governments are advocating for new regulations.
However, Christians need not be swept up in this wave of anxiety. In fact, they should feel quite the opposite and have more grounds for hope than others when it comes to AI.
Christians should recognize that AI has been present for a significant period of time, but it still has a long way to go before it attains a general, human-like intelligence. Regardless, their faith provides a foundation of hope and security.
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The term AI has existed since the 1950s, and AI tools have been in use ever since. We currently utilize them in our everyday lives through voice assistants, email spam filters, TV show recommendations, and much more.
Christian faith is rooted in hope. Christians should not despair over the rise of AI, but instead utilize it to spread the Good News. (iStock)
What’s new now are the large language models (LLMs) that OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought to prominence in November 2022. The capabilities of ChatGPT caught many analysts off guard and sparked frenzied discussions about what the future may hold.
However, it is likely that achieving human-level intelligence in a computer will prove more challenging than imagined. Throughout the milestones surpassed by computers, from early chatbots like ELIZA in 1964 to Deep Blue’s chess victory in 1997 and AlphaGo in 2017, there have been claims that these moments herald the arrival of human-level computational intelligence. Yet, that elusive achievement remains distant.
For Christians who believe in intelligence designed by God, this should evoke a sense of worship and awe. Despite our advancements in creating silicon-based “intelligence,” the architecture and capabilities of human and animal nervous systems reflect the astounding intricacy with which God has endowed us as human beings. As we unravel more about intelligence through our own divinely inspired creativity, we come to understand its truly complex nature.
This presents an opportunity to be continually amazed and in awe of God’s creative design for humanity.
From this stance of awe, hope naturally emerges.
A great source of inspiration for Christians in relation to AI can be found within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
It went largely unnoticed, but this past summer, the largest Protestant American denomination, the SBC, adopted a resolution on AI. This resolution outlines the fundamental truths that Christians hold about God and humanity, the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI, and a set of guidelines for approaching the subject within the SBC.
Christians have always embraced new technology to spread the Gospels – from the printing press to the internet. AI should be no exception. FILE: A 1616 printed King James Bible translated by James I on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., on September 27, 2011. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Importantly, the resolution strikes a good balance between acknowledging the positive and negative applications: “WHEREAS, AI and other emerging technologies present unprecedented opportunities for advancement across various industries and societies, but can also yield dangerous and dehumanizing outcomes if not approached with godly wisdom and discernment.”
Lost in the whirlwind of panic is the fact that advances in AI can benefit us all. LLMs are already being utilized by writers, analysts, and even fast-food drive-thrus. A future where we all have access to capable administrative assistants is becoming a reality.
For churches with limited staff, such systems will reduce administrative costs and allow pastors and staff to devote their energy to what only Christian humans can do: minister God’s love to others.
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Throughout history, Christians have effectively seized new technologies and employed them as vehicles for spreading God’s love. Writing down commandments, scriptures, gospels, and letters from Paul, and then sending them to others was considered cutting-edge technology.
For Christians who believe in intelligence designed by God, this should provide a good reason for worship and awe. Despite all our advances in designing silicon-based “intelligence,” the architecture and capabilities of human and animal nervous systems reflect the amazing detail.
In more recent times, Christians have effectively utilized radio, television, the internet, and smartphone apps to proliferate the Good News. New iterations of AI offer the same potential.
Finally, despite the benefits presented by AI, Christians should maintain a default attitude of hope. As the SBC resolution aptly states: “to engage with them from a standpoint of eschatological hope rather than either uncritically embracing or fearfully rejecting.” And “That we affirm that
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