Several weeks ago i began noticing an uptick in my conversations regarding AI and the impact on family, business, and church. I wouldn't say most of the communication was from an overabundance of knowledge and mostly sharing of concerns and opportunities.
What really turned my attention was an article regarding the trends with youth and the use of AI among people for things they used to see their pastor, teachers, coaches, parents, counselors, doctors and lawyers for. No kidding, this is such a big switch in humans seeking personalized compassionate help for life's toughest issues. For instance a woman was asking AI if she should get a divorce, another asking if she should have an abortion, a man asking the risks of getting caught cheating, a youth asking dating advice and the list goes on and on. One that really caught me was a newer AI app, that is targeting youth and carry the tag line something like, "It's like having a youth pastor and coach right in your pocket.
Now i am careful to mention names, of certain AI options and app options as i would prefer to sound the caution in general and let you search the specifics.
I recently attended a pastoral conference where the speaker was a young man who was very knowledgeable. I would probably call him an expert in this field and as you can imagine the terminology and principles were over the majority of the attenders heads. With a background in electronics and specifically the repair and maintenance realm, I felt I would be more in touch with the technology but things are so quickly moving, it was a day of education for sure.
The presentation was pretty good and then we turned to the specific discussion on AI in the church. This grabbed my attention because i already know of students at all levels using AI to write research papers and this is from 1st grade through college including seminary. It didn't take long for someone to ask about the morality of using it for those papers, and before you knew it we were in heavy discussion regarding writing sermons. I am at a loss for words to hear how many pastors use AI to write a sermon in a matter of a few minutes.
The discussion revolved around the term "temperature". This is the liberty AI has in coming up with your answers. You can adjust it and force it to be more conservative or totally out there. We were given examples of how the response would change based off of the temperature setting and even in the tightest setting you have a technology that takes the most current and popular information and uses that to compile responses.
When you get your report or sermon or response back you can tighten the parameters, but know this before you move in that direction. AI is directional. The instructor took a response and wrote new objectives but AI kept building on what it had already presented, only tighter to the requirements. Yes it made more sense, and yes it read more comprehensive, but AI does not back up. The example with the instructor was three settings of the temperature and a statement like, the apple was -------. AI was supposed to finish the sentence. The conservative setting said something like red or tasty or something, the middle setting kept adding new words each time saying it had a big furry worm, and the crazy one said something so crazy the sentence didn't even make sense.
I am overly cautious on the use of this dumbing agent we call intelligence. When it comes to your personal use, can I just caution you on the use of it when it comes to life decisions, spirituality and relationships? I see screen time for our children exploding and with every moment they are being monitored, not so much for protection unless you put that on, but for usage. If we sign into our AI accounts that now every phone and computer have, you will begin to receive responses to your inquiries that are eerily like your searches and anything you are doing on those devices. All I can ask is that you will consider limiting your youths use, check the settings and talk to them about the moral implications of using AI.
You have been warned. Just like the computer taking over the typewriter, or the cell phone taking over the pager, AI is here and will not be leaving. Companies are scurrying to make it mandatory and even church sermon software like logos have added AI components to their programs. Proceed with caution.
Till next time
P.M.
