Artificial Intelligence: for me or not for me?

AI – should we be worried? This was the question a panel of experts explored in the first Elim Digital Debate this summer. Here, we bring you their thoughts on some benefits and dilemmas for churches

“AI executives warn its threat to humanity rivals ‘pandemics and nuclear war’” announced a recent Financial Times headline.

Alongside walkouts by Hollywood actors worried that AI could replace them on screen, this was one of many stories that raised concerns about this fast-developing technology.

With technology that can read, write, analyse, speak, diagnose and more, AI fans are shouting about benefits like time-saving and improved productivity.

But others warn of dangers like the unreliability of AI data, breached privacy and lack of regulation.

Then there’s the question of what AI means for churches – is it a tool that can create resources, help people learn to pray and write sermons for time-pressed pastors, or is it more of a threat?

In Elim’s first Digital Debate, Jason Ham asked a guest panel how concerned we should be about AI and what opportunities or dilemmas it presents for churches. Here’s a sample of their answers.

Five pros of AI

Your search for images is over

“In terms of copyright law, finding images to illustrate talks can be very difficult because someone else has taken that image, and where do I get permission?” says Dave Newton. “ChatGPT or other tools can enable us to create art and images based on words and ideas that don’t have a copyright licence associated with them.”

The gift of time

“Churches are limited in time and money and some AI tools provide a way to speed up tasks for free,” says Peter Murden, co-founder of Digital Church Toolkit.

“I have to write marketing reports that would normally take two to three days. I used an AI tool and it took me two to three hours.

“Of course, I put prompts in and had to edit it, but it really speeded the task up.”

AI can also help with church communications like texts, emails, social media, YouTube captions and much more.

Robots can strategise

“You might be doing strategy development, say, for your church’s digital communications,” says Peter. “You can put something into ChatGPT like ‘How can my church podcast help with our overall digital strategy?’ and it will pull out ten ideas on how that can happen. This is a great way to use AI as a second brain.”

Robots are ideas people

“AI can be ideas-generators too,” says Peter. “You might have a family fun day coming up, so you can ask it, ‘We have a family fun day – give me five ways we could promote that in our local community,’ and it will do that right away. It’s a great starting place for deciding how to promote something.”

Delegate those tricky emails

“Those of us in ministry are going to get emails and texts that require extra grace. It’s difficult when you don’t know how to reply,” says Peter.

“You can ask ChatGPT to do that for you. You can say, ‘Reply to this message in a way that is empathetic yet pushes back,’ and it will write your reply. Again, you might edit or change it, but at least your starting place is easier!”

Five cons of AI

Should robots write sermons?

“There was a Lutheran conference in Germany where they did the whole thing based on ChatGPT. People are using AI to generate sermons,” says Elim pastor Phil Worthington.

“My issue is I believe a sermon should be inspired. That doesn’t mean you don’t draw from other sources, but what you’re aiming for is to ask what God is trying to tell people.”

Calida Chu, digital theologian at the University of Nottingham, adds: “I’m sure ChatGPT could help you write a sermon, but what’s the ethical implication? Maybe it could give you a summary or some insight but I doubt you’d use it to write the actual sermon.”

Can we trust what we read?

“An area we could be worried about is the idea of echo chambers, where popular things get traction but aren’t necessarily the right thing,” says Dave Newton, Principal of Regents Theological College.

“Some of my nervousness about big data development is about if we get told things we want to hear rather than things that are important, challenging or essential for everyday living.

Calida Chu adds: “At this stage, a lot of people are putting different kinds of information in, but not in a way that is mature enough that you could just Google it or click a button on Wikipedia and trust all the information. There’s a long way to go.”

Robots or us – who should do the work?

“One of the big drivers behind robotics and artificial intelligence is almost to remove work or increase comfort – this idea that if I can relax and do the things I want to do, my life will be better,” says Dave Newton.

“In a sense, we’re moving away from God’s original plan, which was to be humans who were created to work. You have six days of work and one day of rest, but it’s like the fall is saying I want six days of rest, and if I need to work one day, that’s fine – as long as I have the finances.”

Do robots’ prayers count?

A few years ago, a church in Germany set up a robotic priest – but can robots pray for people?

“If we assume prayer is just words spoken, then yes, a robot could do that,” says Phil. “But that diminishes prayer. Prayer is direct communication with God, and computers don’t have the capacity to do that because they aren’t Spirit-inspired. We are unique creations of God and there’s no way a computer could have the same standing.”

Can robots write worship songs?

AI programmes can write songs, but are we worshipping if we sing songs written by robots?

“One of the things I treasure and why I want to sing certain songs is the creativity. Maybe the composer has gone through some things or been inspired by Scripture to write them,” says Calida.

“I wouldn’t say AI can’t inspire us or enrich our spiritual journey, but I guess it’s coming back to relationship because we feel someone has gone through an experience that’s related to us.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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