For nearly a decade, the Missional AI Summit has grown from a small gathering of Bible translators and leaders of Bible societies into the premiere event for tech creators to confer over the development of Christian faith-oriented AI-powered applications. Since 2023 with the launch of generative AI models, it has increasingly focused on evangelization and spiritual discipleship applications like Bible chats, prayer prompts, mentor matches, and interactive tools engaging with sermons and teaching. While the faith-focus is Christian—primarily evangelical—the technology and ethics issues readily extend across other religions. Over 650 attendees, including many first-timers, swelled the ranks of participants in its first-ever Silicon Valley setting. We had the pleasure of a dinner for AI&F experts and friends on the first evening of the Summit.
AI&F-related speakers included keynoters Samuel Chiang of the World Evangelical Alliance, Trish Shaw of Beyond Reach AI ethics consulting in the UK, and James Poulter, AI innovation technologist and mission futurist in London.
Samuel made a stirring presentation in the Global Perspectives conference segment around the need for more languages, broader cultural traditions, and a strong stewardship commitment that places “soul shaping ahead of product scaling”. Samuel pointed to the TRUST Framework of AI&F’s “Parapet” project, architected by Quintin McGrath and Trish Shaw.
James (“JP”) called for a “creative resistance” to ambitions of large technology company that disregard and work against human qualities uniquely derived from our role as image bearers of God.
Trish closed the conference with a strong call for ethics that move beyond narrative statements to a “full stack” of values, translated into standards, deployed with intent, all within the ambit of the law.
A half-dozen other speakers likewise emphasized the importance of care and responsibility in the creation of these apps, making for a considerably stronger emphasis than previous years.
On the innovation side, the Summit also came of age this year in an array of diverse creators crisply pitching a spectrum of apps. These varied from comprehensive platforms and solutions like Gloo’s AI Studio and the You Version Platform, to innovative small company approaches like Velora’s “Smart Bible” app, which follows along a pastor’s sermon and incorporates scripture cited with a chat feature for follow up. FiveQ.com is an example of an amalgamator of other apps for church mission and ministry management, using AI for integration. A mainstage interview with Lew Cirne, the creator of Gamaliel, provided insights from this very successful serial entrepreneur on his Bible study chat tool currently in a trial stage of deployment. Moving beyond North America, Dr. Shikoh Gitau offered an inspiring introduction to Qhala, a team of digital transformation consultants, encompassing analysts, developers, and data scientists in Nairobi, building digital solutions in health care, financial services and digital analysis.
The Summit is planning another London one-day version this summer and is expanding to Nairobi in the fall, a terrific development. There and in next year’s North American Summit, we hope to see this ethical discussion deepening to include specific methodologies and metrics for gauging integration of responsibility and care in product design and performance. Further consideration of how these applications intersect with the needs and demands of classic spiritual formation through the work of the Holy Spirit is an even more vital goal—all building on this excellent forward progress this month in Santa Clara.
High praise and thanks to Summit planners Joshua Seale of Biblica, Yvonne Carlson of Global Media Outreach and FaithTech, James Poulter, and Eric Celerier of Jesus.Net for their commitment to this expansion of ethical focus. Thanks also to Gloo and Biblica for their lead sponsorship, as well as a dozen other sponsors.
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.
