Issue 40 AI and the churchBlog | What does AI know about me?
What does AI know about me?
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.09.24
I first encountered Artificial intelligence (AI) in an article written about me for a leadership journal. The idea was to get inside my head by looking at my personal bookshelf and what it reveals about me. Enter AI. The editor fed in my name, stated what he wanted to discover, and pressed ‘Search’.
The person it came up with reminded me of gooey chocolate cake with extra chocolate sauce. Much of the article came as fabricated quotations of what AI thinks I would say about books, the inner life and what rocks my boat.
It was news to me that I owned a library. It’s not true, although sometimes I dream. And I’m quoted as saying that in that space ‘I find solace, inspiration, and a connection to something greater than myself.’ Well, thank you AI for putting words into my mouth.
Is there any advantage to AI?
We can reach our own conclusions about whether AI might help us become more like Jesus and live a deeper life with God. I can see advantages in producing things like a handy digest of Tom Wright’s books and what he says on any given subject. And AI could revolutionise culturally sensitive Bible translation, if only as a base text for scholars to revise.
Yet the limit of AI is that it can only ever consider the past. The knowledge or data that it has on me is restricted to ‘former things’ as Isaiah put it (Isaiah 43:18).
What do you know ‘bout me?
The singer Sting famously said that you can run a computer check on me, look at my academic records, and even see if I paid my income tax. But that still doesn’t tell you who I really am.
Of course, our back story is an essential part of what makes us who we are; including the childhood we had, the socio-economic context we experienced, the choices we’ve made, and so much more. They all come together to form the unique and wonderful human beings that we see around us today.
AI slips very easily into a world that’s devoid of a big story or an overarching narrative. We are merely the exhaust fumes of a materialistic society in a random universe. When someone says ‘everything happens for a reason’ the AI response can only ever be in the past tense. The Christian narrative is very different. For Willard, the future is a unique ‘opportunity to participate in the cosmic drama of God’s eternal plan for the most glorious universe possible.’3 It’s a big vision. Back in time when the Creation Covenant was established in Genesis 1:26, it says ‘you are a ruler’ both now and in the future. And that rule is intended to be with God and not on our own. We’re told by Paul that if through one person death now reigns in us, how ‘much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5: 17)?
I get this. But let’s pause here and bring in the 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing.1 He (or she) said, ‘It is not what you are or have been that God looks upon with merciful eyes, but what you long to be.’ Our true identity has at least as much to do with who we are becoming as it does about what we have been.
