Eight AI&F experts actively participated in the Missional AI conference in early April. Together, they advanced the idea of a better path between all out acceleration and anxious safety for developing and deploying AI models for Christian missional and ministry applications.
The Summit has emerged over the past 7 years as the best known and seemingly essential meeting place for product developers and faith leaders interested in AI tools for Christian faith practice, technology, and product development. It was begun by the major Bible societies and Bible translators with a focus on leading edge adoption of AI translation. But with the rise of generative AI, its primary focus has shifted to evangelization tools, Bible interfaces, prayer apps, mentoring, communications, and other uses of AI.
This year, as in past years, the conference was planned by the conference originators within Bible translation organizations, while product developers have emerged as key sponsors. The resulting dynamic blends the tempered urgency of the Bible societies (which date to the beginning of the Protestant missionary movement in the 18th century) and the linguistic and cultural sophistication of Bible translators who once required up to 30 years to translate the Bible into a single language, with the Silicon Valley- style focus on speed and scalability of new AI app developers. In spite of these different perspectives, the conference remains dedicated to the application of faith values and a theological lens through which to focus ethics.
Seeing this conference starting to emerge in past years, AI&F previous participants worked hard to introduce into this year’s Summit concepts of responsible AI “with teeth” and our own balance of stewarding the opportunities posed by AI with sophisticated ethical boundaries.
AI and Faith Advisor James Poulter opened the second day of the Conference with a keynote talk on “full stack employees” – how AI is rapidly transforming the marketplace for workers and how Christian business employers and professionals and faith leaders alike must prepare themselves and their congregants for new skill sets and ways of working. AI&F Advisor Richard Zhang spoke on the technology of agentic AI and how it will transform our use of AI. Advisors John Havens, Quintin McGrath and Contributing Fellows Thomas Osborn and Marcus Schwarting led a workshop on measurable AI standards, drawing on John and Quintin’s many years in standards development as part of the global IEEE AI CertifAIed standard setting effort.
Beyond the formal agenda, our influence was felt not only in the conference hallways and networking spaces but especially in a dinner we instigated, hosted by lead conference sponsor Gloo and attended by other leading product development entities. Following this dinner, we discussed the development of measurable, trustworthy and accountable standards, and creation of an independent, consortium-based nonprofit monitoring and certifying organization to carry these standards forward. This provided a significant advance for trust and accountability in which we expect to continue to play a leading role. If interested in supporting our work on such standards, please contact admin@aiandfaith.org.
We were excited to have Dr. Muhammad A Ahmad, our Contributing Fellow from the Programs Team, attend two days of the conference. While Missional AI is a distinctly Christian conference, we are eager to find analogous cutting edge conferences that bridge faith traditions. After the Summit, Muhammad shared his impressions: “What stood out to me was that people from diverse faith traditions are grappling with remarkably similar challenges when it comes to adopting and adapting to AI technologies. Concerns around provenance, ensuring AI is used for good, and using AI to facilitate religious literacy etc. are shared across communities. It would greatly benefit us to collaborate more across these traditions to collectively address the societal challenges that AI presents.”
Following the conference, we look forward to further follow-ups and collaborations with organizations committed to using AI in responsible and ethical ways.
Views and opinions expressed by authors and editors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of AI and Faith or any of its leadership.
