What you should know about AI

Welcome to the ERLC Podcast, where our goal is to help you think biblically about today’s cultural issues. I’m Lindsay Nicolet, and today we’re talking about Artificial Intelligence and the Church.

This summer, the White House released its AI Action Plan, highlighting how winning the race for AI “will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” But as Christians, we have to ask: How do we leverage this technology in ways that honor God’s good design? and How do we ensure AI is used to uphold human dignity rather than undermine it?

On today’s episode, we’re joined by RaShan Frost, director of research and senior fellow at the ERLC, to explore AI’s impact on discipleship, education, family, and the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Episode Transcript: What you should know about AI

Narration:

Welcome to the ERLC podcast, where our goal is to help you think biblically about today’s cultural issues. I’m Lindsey Nicolet, and today we’re talking about artificial intelligence and the church.

Narration:

This summer, the White House released its AI action plan highlighting how winning the race for AI will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security. But as Christians, we have to ask, how do we leverage this technology in ways that honor God’s good design? And how do we ensure AI is used to uphold human dignity rather than undermine it? On today’s episode, we’re joined by RaShan Frost, director of research and senior fellow at the ERLC, to explore AI’s impact on discipleship, education, family, and the fundamental question of what it means to be human. Now let’s turn to Elizabeth Bristol’s conversation with RaShan Frost.

Elizabeth Bristow:

Why is AI an important conversation for the Church right now?

RaShan Frost:

The reason why AI is an important conversation to have for the church is a couple of reasons. One: AI is a major technology and it is going to and is already impacting various aspects of life, education, and work among other categories of how we live in general. And one of the things I think is important for us to consider as we look at AI is it’s one of those technologies that will impact the course of human history. I’m talking about printing press level of an arrival technology. In other words, it changes everything about life. And to use the example of the printing press, you can argue very well that the printing press actually facilitated the Protestant Reformation. And we’re talking about a form of technology now in the 21st century that can change the course and the trajectory of human history as we experience it here. On top of that, it’s not going anywhere.

RaShan Frost:

As we say, it’s an arrival technology. It’s impacting all the different spheres of life. It’s not going anywhere. And I would even say that it possibly could be considered the modern space race, if you will, in that the White House recently just published an AI Action Plan so that the United States can be the global leader in AI development and implementation. So the nations see AI as an opportunity to get in the forefront of global leadership and global power, if you will. And so it has become the modern space race in that regard. But I think we as Christians should think about this, besides these other aspects, technology is not neutral. It’s formative. It shapes us, it shapes our values, it shapes our decision making processes, and it’ll shape our behaviors. And so as a result, we have these technologies that are coming in and within the last 20 years especially, it just seems like technology is moving at a breakneck speed to quote Star Trek, if you will, “warp speed.”

RaShan Frost:

It’s moving fast. The challenge with that is that our ethical considerations and our moral reasoning and ethics surrounding technology has not caught up to the rate of technological change. And so we as Christians need to be on the forefront of thinking about, is this technology good? Is it wise to use? We have to be discerning about how technology impacts life because we live in the excitement of new things. I’m guilty of that. I love my smartphone. I love the things that go with it. I mean, I’m wearing earbuds. All these different things impact how we interact with one another and how we interact with the Lord relationally with him through our quiet times, through community and church and these other things. And so we need to spend a lot of time discerning whether a technology like AI is a good technology or is it something we should be utilizing, and if so, how do we do that?

Elizabeth Bristow:

What would you say are key areas of life and ministry that will force Christians to wrestle with the ethical challenges of AI?

RaShan Frost:

So there are a couple of things that I would say would impact how we wrestle with this. And the first one, I would say just off of my own experiences as a pastor and even as a college professor is education, the formation aspects of education. 

And as a college professor, I think that it’s important for us to consider the role of education, especially in the context that I’m in in undergraduate education. And so if education is simply taking the required courses to obtain a particular degree or a certification, then AI becomes a tool to achieve those ends. Even if that requires cheating because the idea is I have to get a degree or to get a certification so I can get this job in whatever way, I can do that as efficiently as possible, I will do that. And I had to deal with that with a student who cheated on two papers.

RaShan Frost:

I teach in the Christian studies department of a Christian university. And so it’s especially concerning when we’re thinking about how we view education and how if we don’t provide a robust view of education to students as to the proper role for education, AI just becomes a tool by which it undermines the whole picture of education. And to say it another way is what we’re seeing in education is that students aren’t learning, but they’re using AI to complete tasks without considering what is the goal of education. Now again, I’m saying that based upon if the goal of education is to get a degree or certification to get a job, but if we’re talking about from a biblical perspective of education, and I like to frame it from the perspective of the great commandment, loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself.

RaShan Frost:

So there are a couple of things that I would say would impact how we wrestle with this. And the first one, I would say just off of my own experiences as a pastor and even as a college professor is education, the formation aspects of education. One of the things that is really interesting is that AI really facilitates vice. It makes vice really easy. I had a situation where I had a student write an entire paper using AI, and I confronted him with it, and he confessed. Now, mind you just to give a point of reference. I’m at a Christian institution. I teach at a Christian institution. And so because the student confessed, I told him that I’m going to  give him a zero for the assignment. That was grace that I didn’t fail him for the course.

He got a zero on the assignment. The subsequent paper, he does the exact same thing. And at that point, I had to fail him for the course because he violated the student policy twice. And so it’s frightening to think about what makes cheating so easy, and the use of AI to facilitate that instead of taking a zero and not turning in the exam. He would’ve gotten the same grade either way. If he didn’t do the work, he would’ve gotten the same grade as he did for getting caught cheating. But he risked something greater. In education, students are always looking for shortcuts, not understanding that it is important for the formation of the individual to learn how to think, learn how to solve problems, learn how to communicate through their own processes of how they’re gathering information, synthesizing information, and communicating it.

RaShan Frost:

So that’s one aspect. The other one I would’ve probably say is, is sermon preparation. We have so many pastors who are bivocational or co-vocational, and Sunday is always coming. I know that as a pastor you preach one sermon and guess what? That next sermon’s coming and AI can come off as a cheat code to save time. But sermon preparation is the work of preparing God’s Word for God’s people. And that is not something you shortcut. You need to take your time meditating through the text, working out through the text, wrestling with the text, so that when you’re communicating it is your encounter with God that week to present to the people. And so I understand that we’ve all got jobs and we’re busy and things like that, and we can see it as a time saver, but it’s really doing the work that we should be doing as pastors.

RaShan Frost:

One of the other things I think is important that as we wrestle with the ethical challenge of AI is what will it do to the family in terms of communicating and opening up a home in which the family is together, sharing themselves in a safe place, in a safe environment where somebody might go to a chat bot to find that same refuge and safety. And so we need to be able to think through these things in a practical way that recognizes that AI is not leaving, it’s not going anywhere, but there are ethical challenges that we need to deal with as Christians so that we are still navigating this new world with AI from an explicitly biblical and Christian worldview.

Elizabeth Bristow:

How should our understanding of human dignity shape the way that we think about AI?

RaShan Frost:

At the most fundamental and basic level, AI will have us, like most other technologies, thinking about what does it mean to be human? And so when you think about this idea, even the term AI means artificial intelligence, which means that there is a natural intelligence. We understand what that natural intelligence is and where it came from. And so we know that all human beings are created in the image of God. Natural intelligence is a gift from God to humanity. In other words, this dignity is the gift that God gives us by being created in His image. And so it is endowed by God to all persons, regardless of stage of development, cognition, and abilities. The challenge with AI is that it can force us to reconsider what it means to be human because it gives an idealized view of human reasoning and thought, or a synthesized version of it.

RaShan Frost:

AI being artificial means it has to derive its intelligence from another source. But at the same time, what ends up happening is it ends up developing its own autonomy. If you look at that way, that AI actually learns from people, AI then is made in the image of man. So while human beings are made in the image of God, AI is made in the image of man, which then complicates matters because Genesis 3 really clouds the picture of human relationships. Because now AI is not learning what is good, true, beautiful, and good from a pre-fall state. In other words, it’s not learning from that humanity. It’s not learning from the humanity that was in good and perfect relationship with God and one another in creation.

It is now learning from post-fallen humanity—the good, the bad, and the ugly. So that’s the AI that is continually growing and developing and developing its own autonomy. As people who are made in the image of God who possess this human dignity and this work that comes from God, we need to be wary in discerning about what AI will do in terms of how we look at redefining what it means to be human. Because when we do it that way, we end up redefining humanity, not based on God’s standard, but on our standard. And AI being made in the image of man will seek to take that next step of transhumanism as a scope of perfection. I think that’s a very dangerous and frightening thing to consider as we think about the redefinition through AI and what it means to be human. 

Elizabeth Bristow:

We’ve talked kind of about the dangers of AI and challenges that are there. Tell us how can pastors and church leaders use AI wisely in their ministry? How is it a helpful tool that they can use and how can they help their congregations do the same?

RaShan Frost:

Well, I think the first thing is to remember that AI is a tool used to facilitate flourishing. It’s meant to make work easier not to replace a person or people. For example, AI should never be used to replace sermon preparation or authentic learning. So AI can assist in those things but not replace it. And what do I mean by that? So I’ll give you a perfect example. I know several churches that use their sermon notes to create small group questions throughout the rest of the week. One of the things that you could do is take your sermon and try to use AI possibly to create discussion questions. So it’s not writing your sermon for you, it’s not replacing your sermon, but it’s taking the notes from your sermon. Especially for those of us that that like to preach expositionally, it would be good sometimes to use it to think through, how AI would frame this question. 

RaShan Frost:

Now understand, even if you do that, AI is not the final arbiter of your discussion questions. In other words, while it facilitates developing those questions, do not rely upon AI to be the final decision maker for them because it’s only operating within the parameters that it’s been given. And so I think that’s one way to think about that. The other thing I think is important that as we help our congregations to do the same, it’s to remind them of that very same thing. It is a tool. The tool should never become the master. It is to be used. And so if that’s the case, then it’s about responsible use of these tools, not to replace the work, but facilitating the work whatever that looks like. The reason why I say it like that is to remember this caveat above all things is that Christian discipleship is about transformation, not information transfer.

RaShan Frost:

If we’re saying that the biggest calling for us as Bible believing Christians is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, but it says to teach them to observe everything that He has commanded. This is the Great Commission. It’s a reminder that Christian discipleship is about transformation and being conformed to the image of Christ as we follow Him where we live, learn, work, and play. That means that it does not only impact our cognitive knowledge about who God is, but our heart knowledge of who God is, which then changes how we live. The second thing is that aspect of discipleship also means that we’re doing it in community, which means we have to have authentic relationships with one another in community so that we can use these tools wisely in ministry instead of us being reliant upon these tools.

Elizabeth Bristow:

Do you see it having a positive or a negative impact on biblical literacy and discipleship?

RaShan Frost:

Well, it’s a double a sword. It can provide a database. There have been times where I’ll go to Google and I’m trying to remember, where a scripture is exactly or how it’s framed. Google is a form of AI. We’ve all used Google in some way, shape, or form. But here’s the thing, it is a database. But if we’re not careful, AI becomes a replacement of how we interact with Scripture. In other words, when we interact with Scripture, we are interacting with the living God who revealed Himself through his Word.

RaShan Frost:

And so our time in the Word, whether it’s sermon prep, whether it’s personal bible study, whether it’s group Bible study, it is about us interacting and communing with God as the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts with His truth. I think that’s important for us to remember that. And the problem with AI is it strips all of that. It strips the most important aspect of biblical literacy and discipleship. It is communing with God. It becomes about Bible information rather than gospel transformation. And it becomes a crutch for biblical literacy. I remember when I got saved in the nineties and I was reading the Scriptures and interacting with God’s Word and on fire for the Lord. Kind of like the disciples who went on the walk to Emmaus and they encountered the living God and the resurrected Lord.

RaShan Frost:

He goes and breaks down Scripture going back to the beginning and at the end when Jesus left them in Emmaus, they said, “Didn’t our hearts burn while he explained the Scriptures to us?” I think there’s something beautiful about that whereas AI will strip us of that beauty. Because we become more and more reliant upon AI for biblical literacy, we become biblically illiterate. I became biblically literate learning and reading and searching the Scriptures daily. Kind of like the Berean Christians in Acts 17, who were a people of virtue as they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were true. I think that’s important for us in our discipleship. Discipleship is also a community endeavor. It is not something done in isolation. It’s not something that can be done in a chatbot. It requires biblical community, God’s people being together, being sanctified together, growing together in community. And AI cannot do that.

Elizabeth Bristow:

This is a little bit off the topic. You said something about Google being a rudimentary AI tool. Now if you Google something, it’s even changed where they give you the AI response first. Yeah, they don’t just pull up the articles anymore. They’re formulating the answer for you.

RaShan Frost:

So think about that. When you first did a Google search two years ago, you had to look at every potential link and see, is it a reliable link? Is it a good link? Does it meet the need of what you’re looking for? All of that stuff. And now it’s saying, you know what? You don’t have to worry about that. We’ll do that for you. And it is convenient, but it shortcuts the process because what’s to say that those search results and what it’s tabulating is actually reliable information? We’re placing a lot of trust in Google to give us the right answer when again, it’s going to give you the good, bad and the ugly. And I think that’s something that we need to be discerning about as we think through AI and even how we look at Google anymore or other search engines and other programs.

Elizabeth Bristow:

Well, let’s close it out by asking how might AI help Christians engage the world with the gospel and where might it actually get in the way?

RaShan Frost:

I’m one of those people that loves to think that there’s opportunity everywhere, especially as a church planner, as a missionary, there are opportunities everywhere. So here’s one way I would say it like this. Wherever there’s AI, there’s an AI developer, which means that there’s a mission field with a person behind the AI. I think that could be the first place. In other words, reaching the gospel with people who have a lot to say about the direction of AI. If they can get the gospel and the Lord penetrates their hearts and shapes their hearts and forms their hearts, then AI becomes a tool by which God can be glorified through the people who help develop it. I personally, at the same time, have not fully grasped how to use AI to reach the world with the gospel. There are those who do and those who have, I have a much more cautious approach to it.

RaShan Frost:

I still believe that the greatest way to share the gospel is by interacting with people one-on-one or in group settings or just, but interacting with real people in real time throughout the course of time. That’s why I mentioned at the beginning of this very question that there’s a person programming AI. That’s the person I want to reach with the gospel because they’ll shape AI. Because I think at the end of the day, it’s how we can interact with other people. Now, I will say this, I think it’ll get in the way more because what ends up happening is that we begin to outsource the work of the gospel to AI when it’s our job as believers to do it. I think that’s important for us to think through. Is AI the tool to share the gospel? There’s a lot of technology that you can use, and there might be a way of doing a video through AI to share the gospel. 

RaShan Frost:

I remember ministries like Jesus films and other evangelistic videos, and there might be an evangelistic video that you could do or something like that where you could use ai. But at the end of the day, the purpose of sharing the gospel is to see people who were made in the image of God who have been separated by sin, reconciled to him through Jesus Christ. He did not give AI the ministry of reconciliation. He gave the Church–every man, woman, and child who profess Jesus as Lord–that ministry of reconciliation.

Narration:

As we think about how AI is shaping both the church and our culture, it’s clear this technology isn’t neutral. It’s a tool to be stewarded and one that can either distort or reflect God’s good design. Our responsibility is to avoid being controlled by it and to use it in ways that protect human dignity, promote human flourishing, and ultimately glorify God. Thanks for listening to this episode of the ERLC podcast. Be sure to join us next time as we continue this conversation about AI and the church.