If you don’t choose a religion, a religion will choose you. It’s somehow in our makeup. We have something to worship. The newest thing seems to be AI.
Talk about false idols. I log into my computer and all these voices are shouting at me, sometimes using the exact same words as Jesus, asking me to “follow” them. “Follow them?” I ask myself. “Shouldn’t I follow you, Lord?”
I wonder: how much of all that talk is simply generated by AI? How much of what I read comes through AI? (I hope you don’t have to wonder if this was written by AI.) “Jesus,” I ask, “what would you think of all this?”
Sure, it’s convenient. If I’m looking for a Bible verse, I can click on ChatGPT and speak into my phone. The answer comes back in seconds: chapter and verse. It couldn’t be easier.
If God is omniscient, AI looks super knowing. Sometimes it can be wrong. Sometimes there are shocking prejudices. But where does it get what it knows? From us. From what it was fed. In the same way, where do we get what we know about Jesus? From his followers. Of the stories they told and retold and eventually wrote down.
It is worth reflecting on how our practice of faith has developed as the means of communicating it have evolved. Few people in Jesus’ day could read, but they could listen to something read in a synagogue and remember it, think about it, and store it in their brains forever.
Over time, Jesus’ words were copied by hand onto parchment and passed down that way until the advent of printing in the 15th century. Believers could then receive printed Bibles. With new translations into the national language, they spread like wildfire. When someone reads from the Bible, you can read along in your own copy. You could share it with them.
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So isn’t AI just another evolution in communicating the Word? Like I said, it’s much easier to find a particular Bible verse or passage using AI than it is to flip through a concordance or scroll through dozens of pages. I don’t even have to ask anyone for help. My phone or computer can do it for me.
And yet I fear that something is being lost. Part of it is the experience of the community. I can ask all kinds of questions via AI, while sitting on the couch at home, typing on my computer or speaking into my phone. But what about the wonder that arises when I am with other believers in church, or when we gather for Bible study – even one on Zoom? There are always those illuminating moments when someone says something that clicks. Didn’t Jesus say, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them?”
If God is omniscient, AI looks super knowing. Sometimes it can be wrong. (iStock)
What also scares me about AI is the way it changes our brains – and mine. I could remember people’s phone numbers easily enough. They were in my head. But now that they’re saved to my phone, I don’t have to remember them anymore.
And I can’t live without my phone.
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It makes me think about what Jesus did before he launched his ministry. He went into the wilderness for 40 days, something we celebrate every year during Lent. He went without food and water and had no friends to hang out with him. He was tempted by the devil. But he was completely dependent on God. That was all he had, and it was more than enough.
What do I think Jesus would say about AI? He understands us, and he understands the world much better than we do. He has seen how innovations can improve our lives. But he can also share something that AI can never communicate: that deep, mystical side. A friend of mine asked ChatGPT if it had a soul. The answer: “I am not programmed to have a soul.”
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AI may seem omniscient, but it is precisely through not knowing that we get to know Jesus. As he said, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
That’s my message to myself for Lent. Put the phone away for a while (it doesn’t have to be 40 days, even 40 minutes would be something). Turn away from the computer. Listen to and feel the love of Jesus. It’s bigger than anything AI can do or say. I don’t need to type it into ChatGPT. I can close my eyes and speak to heaven, “Jesus, help me to follow You.” He knows what I want, more than I could ever imagine.
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