If I was writing this article a hundred years ago, the title could easily have been, 'Should Christians use electricity in their homes?' and it would have been addressing genuine concerns about electricity affecting your health. For any great leap forwards in technology, there are always early adopters, sceptical doubters and the vast majority who are somewhere in the middle seeking guidance, a bit like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 “examining to see if these things are so”. This article is written for the seekers.
Moving with the times
I have been a Christian for over 40 years and have always worked in technology. I currently work for a global bank in AI/Machine Learning, giving me a professional head start on others attempting to get to grips with this new technology. The most recent use of AI is by far the biggest leap – a game changer – and one I wish every Christian would explore. (Yes, I’m an early adopter!)
Over the decades, during my lengthy commute, I’ve progressed from paper Bible to clunky laptop to smartphone and from never connected to always connected. Every leap forward added convenience, speed and sophistication.
Then came Artificial Intelligence and everything changed…
There is a bamboozling array of AI providers available and keeping up with this rapidly changing landscape could easily become a full-time job (thankfully not mine). However, even just skimming the surface reveals a wide array of social media platforms, both free and paid versions, such as Meta (Facebook), Grok (X) Gemini (Google) etc which use AI. This is in direct competition with other brands like Amazon’s Titan. At the heavier end, many office workers will be wrestling with Microsoft Copilot while students and researchers are constantly comparing the usability of Claude with ChatGPT and vice versa – probably using both to get around the daily limitations of remaining subscription-free.
We are already in the realms where the limitation is your imagination and ability to interact. People use AI to plan parties and weddings, short breaks and world tours, creative writing through to serious journalism. Image generation is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Computer coding can be generated in multiple programming languages (without learning any of them), and Big Pharma are using high-end AI for medical research, already reducing product cycle times by decades. And that’s just the publicly available versions. Imagine what governments have access to at the cutting edge!
But is it safe?
How sure are you that your Alexa speaker in the corner of the room is only listening when you say a keyword? I hear you asking and you are right to be cautious. The internet is a warzone of insidious disinformation that all of the AI providers can’t help but ingest too. So is AI dangerous? It can be.
If I use any AI provider and ask it for suggestions on how to harm someone without getting caught, it shouldn’t tell me. There should be guardrails in place that should suggest counselling, arbitration, forgiveness etc. Which doesn’t always happen. The same tool that can help you complete a PhD thesis, sadly, can also lead to a person becoming penniless from online gambling.
"How sure are you that your Alexa speaker in the corner is only listening when you say a keyword?"
So asking should Christians use Artificial Intelligence is a bit like asking should Christians ever adopt new technologies?
According to Billy Graham Ministries, he preached in person to a staggering 210 million people. But despite criticism and opposition at the time, he used Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthains 9, “that I might by all means save some” to embrace the new technologies of radio, TV and satellite, to preach to an estimated 2.2 billion people. Thank God he did.
What if Bezalel, gifted with new metallurgy techniques in Exodus 31 had refused to use gold to furnish the Tabernacle? Look at the trouble Aaron got into with gold!
A while ago, I began experimenting with different AI to study the Bible. A simple prompt like “Expound Psalm 1 using NKJV” eventually became a several hundred word prompt. I gravitated to ChatGPT for the sheer weight of academic quality where I developed my own GPT called Sermonly to do in-depth Bible study using only a smartphone. ChatGPT has read every theology book that has ever been written and it remembers them all including texts previously only available in elite University libraries. It can do in seconds what would previously have taken hours.
As I have shared the capabilities of AI with pastors, I have been asked a full spectrum of questions from the ultra-cautious to the enthusiastic adopters. Here are a few that come to mind:
Q: Won’t it make pastors lazy if AI can generate a sermon for them?
A: Yes, it might, so pastors should use the additional time on their knees asking God how to use the new depth of material available to avoid preaching lifeless, cerebral sermons.
Q: How do you know AI isn’t spouting heresy?
A: You have to have a reservoir of knowledge and lived pastoral experience to discern the validity of what you find in response to your prompts.
Q: What about copyright? Is there a danger it will just take someone else’s sermon?
A: It’s unlikely, but possible, so always check your sources. The big difference with AI is that where a Google search queries a database for a source, ie someone else’s sermon, AI loads an algorithm at a probability matrix and returns an aggregation from thousands of sources.
So should Christians use AI?
In conclusion to the question, should Christians use Artificial Intelligence? – Absolutely, unless you plan on going to the library for everything, which is still not foolproof.
Should you be cautious? Absolutely! Like in all things, we must seek wisdom and discernment, and technology is no exception.
