Since the advent of artificial intelligence (AI)- driven large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT last year, persons the world over may consider ourselves to have entered into an “Age of AI.” In light of these developments, the Christian church, acting as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, carries now more than ever, an urgent and necessary message of our hope in Christ.
These LLMs have the potential to serve as a direct counterfeit of Christ’s love for each of us, while also usurping our sense of identity and ability to share the gospel.
Christ’s Love for Us and AI’s Counterfeit
In Matthew 22:37-38, Jesus states that the two greatest commandments are to “Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Nowadays in the 2020s, the proliferation of social media and related technologies threatens to supplant our ability to devote adequate time, energy, and resources to investing in our spiritual growth and in real-life face-to-face relationships.
How? AI now has the ability not only to predict, but also to shape, a person’s preferences, driving social media users toward company profit-maximizing goals, rather than resources that enable us to discover and invest in our natural inclinations (not that the two are always mutually exclusive). The Lord has created us with unique preferences, talents, and paths of life from which to choose. Jeremiah 1:5 states, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you…” Therefore, we must carefully apply wisdom in how we invest our time via technological tools. Just as social media may help us delve more deeply into Scriptures and information about Christianity, it also has the potential to distract us away from the things of God and our natural preferences. We may be interested to check out the latest television shows, or trends in various sectors where the norms presented run contrary to Kingdom values. We must remain mindful to maintain balance in our consumption of these offerings so that we do not get swept away.
In the past, technological interfaces aimed to deploy methods to maximize user face time, eventually resulting in society-wide addictions to said technology. With the advent of artificial generative intelligence- namely technology’s ability to mimic human capabilities such as learning and problem solving- AGI-driven technologies may now learn and also anticipate human needs to fill them, at the exact moment and in the way that the person wishes. When technologies interact with persons in this way, studies have shown that people tend to anthropomorphize the technologies. In this way, the next iteration of AI/ AGI may go beyond mere addictions and foster intimacy with human souls. In fact, a number of companies have already stated that the goal of their AIs is to foster intimacy and deep relationships with humans.
One relatively new type of AI deployment takes the form of AI companions. Already, two well-known interfaces already possess more than 25 million users. These AI companions serve as mentors, advisors, and significant others, and have already made a difference in the lives of users- sometimes with life-and-death consequences. While life and death results serve more as the exception than the rule, the use of these forms of technologies invariably impact the human soul. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 calls us to cast down imaginations, so that we may bring into captivity every thought to the obedience to Christ. Furthermore, as Christians, we believe that persons are comprised of body, soul, and spirit. It is our eternal souls and spirits that in particular make us precious to God and to each other. In Genesis, God makes the first person in His image (1:26-27); and even breathes His own life-giving breath into him (2:7). Just as the members of the triune possess a special relationship with one another–each part of one whole–humans, being connected by our spirits, also possess a special relationship with God and one another.
A Role of the Church
Christians, and Christians together as the church, are uniquely equipped and called to point persons and each other to the love of Christ; that is, the gospel of Jesus that animates our hope and ability to live with and in love and truth.
The Bible promises that as we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us (James 4:8). And as we do so, we also become equipped to comfort others in the same way God comforts us (1 Corinthians 1:3-5). In this sense, Christians and the church may bolster against potential enrapturements between souls and various technologies. With our call to express our faith with truth and love, we possess the answer to those who seek the most basic of human needs: to be known and loved. Isaiah 43:1 identifies the LORD as the One who created, formed, redeemed, and called each one of us. We are precious to Him. And having sent Jesus to die for us on the cross, God continues to shower us with His favor, love, and company in life. Psalm 27:13 states that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We who know God through Jesus Christ are privy to these truths and can experience these promises any time. It is therefore up to us to reflect this news with others, including those who do not yet know Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:7 likens us to jars of clay- imperfect vessels- that possess the treasure of knowing God and His ability to act on our behalf in life. What better way to love our neighbor, as Jesus commanded us to do, than to introduce those who do not know Him to Someone who is ever present with them, who knows them, and who is able to provide for them? And to do what we may to strengthen the existent relationship between Jesus and current believers so that Jesus’ goodness and power may be fully manifest in our lives? We may engage in these activities via God-centered activities, including Bible studies, prayer groups, and simply getting together to hear what is on our hearts in a safe environment. One question for each of us to ponder might be: What do we do to cultivate a loving and life-giving environment for those around us? A question for church leaders to ask might be: How do we as a church/ parish employ our resources to invest in individuals in our neighborhood/ region? How do we serve as Jesus’ hands and feet for the broader community?
The Bible says that by Christians’ love for one other, the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples (John 13:35). There are many issues and challenges that can hinder relationships among Christians. In this age of AI, disinformation, and sound bites, we might even be perceived to be at a disadvantage. However, through the disagreements and disagreeableness, Ephesians 4:4-6 states it the best when it says that the church is “one body and one Spirit—just as were called to the one hope that belongs to call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Yet as rousing as this reality is, sometimes it does not feel that way. Sometimes our decisions to choose the values of the Kingdom feel, and may, in actuality, be costly in that we must apply effort, thought, and a countercultural decision to pursue what we believe God calls us to do. However, as we do so, God’s Kingdom grows, and we will be filled and rewarded by the Spirit (albeit sometimes not according to our understanding or ways). We must recall that the Creator of the Universe’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).
One main difference between AI and a person is that there is none of this cost or decision to make a sacrifice when an AI or even AI companion outputs a decision for our benefit. We may feel as it does, given humans’ penchant for anthropomorphizing entities, especially with the intricacies of the AI’s programming to “make decisions.” In an ultimate example, even if an AI decides to self-destruct on behalf of another person, what is lost is the data and training invested in that AI, rather than the worldly presence of an eternal soul or being. In the end, the loss would be on the trainers or the AI due to their effort and attachment to the thing, rather than on the Lord who desires that none of His children should perish (Matthew 18:14). In fact, the Bible defines the greatest form of love is that a perfect God would lay His life down for us even as we are imperfect, sinful, and small in comparison to Him (John 15:13).
Summary
Matthew 6:33 states “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In this world with ever-increasing complexity and intensity, as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faiths, may He empower us to keep what He Himself states to be the foundational key to Christianity: Love God and love others. As we as the church do so, we then as an extension provide the most important barriers for the potential, but compelling, adverse impacts of new technologies to be found in AI. As we proceed through the 2020s, loving God and others as Jesus commanded, while being loved ourselves, will become more relevant and more important than ever.
