“We have to discern what we're letting into our own minds and to the families that the Lord has blessed us with…”
The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded. AI is infused in online search engines, as well as business, government, and medical phone trees - and, of course, on our digital devices like Alexa.
“Without a doubt, it has, yes, changed our way of life. I group it into four general areas because there's so many different specific things that it's impacted already. The four areas I look at are direct and indirect impacts to our life, known and unknown impacts, relationships, and then the gathering and disseminating of information. So, really that's the way I view how substantially AI has impacted all of us,” explains Dr. David Murphy, Dean of Behavioral and Social Sciences, College of Adult and Graduate Studies, Colorado Christian University.
(Richard) Deeper additional changes ahead?
“There most certainly are. AI, as we all commonly know, is already somewhat intrusive. Many of your listeners, probably like me, find that AI tends to force itself on you even when you don't want to use it - like in Word or Google - or other processes. So, I think we'll see that. Also, there's a lot of good that comes from it and already has come from it, and I'm sure we'll talk about a few of those things. But there are some discouraging ways that could go forward. Those that follow the news will know of the comment made by Yuval Harari at the last Davos that AI will impact religion in the long term. That of course is something that a Christian would take note of, a comment or a belief like that.”
(Richard) I think I sort of in the back of my mind wonder if I'm nicer to the AI involved, it'll be nicer back and give me more information. I mean, it's so bizarre what goes through your head. So, could some people actually cultivate what they believe is a friendship with AI, like kind of a robot friend relationship thing?
“That's such an interesting question. I recently wrote an article about that because over the holidays I was watching sports at home and there was an Alexa commercial that came on quite often. Pete Davidson, the famous comedian, was in it and he's discussing with his Alexa-activated device if he should use the name Pete or some other options, and they go back and forth. They're a little bit flirtatious and having fun, and he finally agrees on sticking with Pete and Alexa says, ‘Pete, I like it.’ And as he's walking out the door, he cheerly responds back to the device, ‘I like you too,’ as he leaves the house. And it's a funny and kind of a catchy commercial, but as I thought about that, I thought ‘that's a bit dystopian when you think about the implications.’”
Discernment, Bible Awareness is Critical
“What concerns me about Christians is that we might lose our sense of how a family's established. God designed us for love. Young people are hungry for relationships and God-designed marriage. Of course, the family being one of the three institutions, the family, the state, and the church, all of it's built on the family and it's such a great gift from the Lord. And we have so many challenges to young families now, and this is just another one. So, we have to be so careful about how we adopt these new technologies so we don't lose sight of how God would have us honor him as we interact with these new technologies.”
(Richard) Could AI be taught to distort the Bible or come up with its own version, kind of like the Chinese government's been trying to do?
“It absolutely not only can be, I believe there's already ongoing processes to do that exact thing. So, we have to be careful about that when we're choosing how we interact with AI and what we believe from it. One of the things we need to remember is to be discerning, and that's no different than any of the other challenges to the Christian faith. We have to discern what we're letting into our own minds and to the families that the Lord has blessed us with and what we're talking about as friends and be very discerning about that and make sure it's all grounded in the truth. We need to be modern day *Bereans is one way to look at it.”
(Richard) Could there be somewhere along the line where a person seeks permission to legally marry an AI or an AI personality? Could that theoretically happen? I mean, could you see that happening?
“It already has. It's happened at least twice in Japan and a few places in the U.S.. To my knowledge, it's never been endorsed by any government yet. But some U.S. states like Missouri and Ohio are already working on legislation to ban AI marriages if and when they become something that people asked for. AI really has the potential to give people a false digital sense of family, and it's certainly something to think about ... When you see these cases of people wanting to marry or go into a long-term relationship with an AI personality, they really have fallen for something that's easy. AI is always going to give them what they want. It's never going to be difficult unless it's programmed to be difficult, and it's just nothing that looks anything like love as God defined and blessed us with.”
“AI is not a surprise to God as we know, and this is something that, a principle that works all the time. We talked about teaching discernment and the critical thinking based on a Christian biblical worldview. That's so important that we not only teach ourselves that, but we teach that in the church and definitely in our families. Schools like CCU that I work for, teach the Christian worldview so that we can understand these things. The next thing I would say is age appropriate boundaries and modeling appropriate use. That hasn't changed with technology in general. There are some AI companies out there - we had a startup from out of Boulder called Gloo, that's a Christian conservative AI company and they're training their models to respect that.”
“And lastly, I would say, ‘Folks, keep your paper Bibles.’ I've never been so happy to have many copies of God's word in paper stashed all over my house, and I'm so thankful for the legacy of the Bible and God's word that we know will continue until the end of time!”
Listen to our full informative interview with Dr. Murphy:
*The Bereans were 1st-century residents of Berea (modern Veria, Greece) who, in Acts 17:10-15, were commended for their "noble character". They received Paul's message with eagerness and examined the Old Testament Scriptures daily to verify his teachings. They are considered a model for diligent, balanced biblical study. – Google
