AI is everywhere today, and it’s influence on our lives and society is only increasing by the day. Some of you experience this in your work, perhaps even find your job changing significantly because of AI. Some of you experience this in your leisurely time scrolling, looking up information, or playing games. There are lots of experts who have thought long and hard about AI, as well as prophets who have tried to discern what the effects of AI will be 1, 2, 5 years down the road. I am not an AI expert, nor do I aim to be a prophet.
But I trust that God’s word is true and relevant to our situation, just as it has been for thousands of years. The power of AI is truly incredible. But there is much that AI can’t do, and can’t replace. Here are four ways that God’s word speaks clearly and powerfully into our current moment.
Our need to know and cling to the truth.
From the time the serpent said to Eve, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1), there has been misinformation in the world. Technology—from the telephone (there’s a reason the game “telephone” is fascinating) to newspapers to TV to social media to AI—has only magnified the presence and problem of misinformation. A pastor friend recently shared a statement from a young adult to the effect that they just assume everything they see and read online is probably fake.
What should we do in such a confusing time? Cling to that which is most certain, and most significant. The temptation is to spend the most time on things which are least certain and least significant—not only do we see this online, but if we’re honest, it is in our marriages and parenting and church “squabbles” as well. While we need not ignore discussions and issues that are comparatively minor—in our homes, in our society—we ought to major in things of utmost importance.
Read and study the Bible for unchanging truth about God, his word, and humanity. Read good books and articles unpacking and applying God’s word. Listen to sermons that do the same. You’ll be fine not knowing what to believe about the latest fad, idea, technology, movie, scandal, or proposed bill as long as you know him who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Our need for real, embodied community.
God gave us bodies, and this was part of his good creation. There have long been suggestions that the physical world, including our bodies, are bad, and AI tempts us to think that our physical bodies are unnecessary, as if an AI bot is not all that different from a human being.
Along with this, we are tempted to think that online “community” is an effective replacement for in-person community.
But this runs against how God made us. We were made as embodied souls, to live in real, close community with others. We are meant to see and engage others not merely as the sum of their ideas and positions—as online engagement trains us to do—but as embodied souls, created in the image of God. We are meant to love and serve and minister to others in greater ways than liking posts, donating to GoFundMe campaigns, sharing inspiring videos, or arguing in the comment sections.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever do those things, but the love that both we and others need, and the love by which “all people will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:35), requires us to physically gather with one another, and to know and be known by one another.
Our need to learn wisdom.
Technology—including AI—is often presented as enabling us to be more efficient. As helping us to get more done, in shorter time. But the Bible is clear that there is more to life than efficiency or productivity.
And one of the things the Bible regularly speaks to is the importance of learning wisdom. This involves things like: learning what life is all about; learning the fear of the Lord; learning right and wrong, truth and error; learning to love justice and righteousness, and hate evil; learning to receive correction; learning to be humble.
And it is worth noting that such wisdom is not something AI—or any technology–can teach you. Asking AI, “What should I, as a Christian, do in this situation?” each and every time you face a decision, will not teach you wisdom. Rather, we are meant to develop and mature in wisdom by actually living life, with others, before the face of God.
We see something of this in Philippians 1: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…” (Phil. 1:9-10). Paul speaks to a continual growth in love and knowledge and discernment, attributes gained by the experience of living life.
Our need for real-life examples to follow.
AI can give you lots of information. And some of that information may be true and helpful. But AI cannot give you an example of what it looks like to be a Christian. Remember, we are embodied souls, and being a Christian affects every part of us (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”—Matthew 22:37).
And so God intends for us to have real-life examples of faithful Christians, who we learn from and follow after. Paul writes, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). He charges pastor/elders to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). Jesus tells us to judge prophets and teachers “by their fruits,” including the example of their lives.
Technology increasingly tempts us to live our lives in an online world, where other people’s lives are to some degree hidden: Listen to teachers we never meet, join groups we never physically gather with, follow churches we never attend, get answers from lifeless bots. But we were created to learn from and follow the examples of people who’s lives we can see. How does this person treat their kids? What is this person like when off the stage, when the camera is off? How does this person handle disappointment?
No matter how realistic and personal AI may get, it can never give us such examples, which are vital to the Christian life.
The church.
All of these human needs, and the inability of AI to meet them, remind us of the value of the church, and of our committing to and regularly gathering with the church. In a world that is increasingly impersonal and disembodied, where people are increasingly isolated, where things like wisdom and virtue are replaced by mere information, where efficiency and productivity reign supreme, the church acts to keep us sane, to keep us human, and to keep us growing into the image of Christ.