Last week, my colleague Paul Asay compared artificial intelligence to a vampire: AI generators suck the creative voices and talents out of human beings’ art and literature and spit it back out to us—sometimes seemingly even better than what we had before.
Paul was a bit disappointed but also kind of impressed to see just how well AI generators performed when tasked with rewriting a paragraph for him, and especially to see how easily they could mimic his own voice.
But as the editor of that piece, I have to say, I wasn’t nearly as impressed. Could the AI write well? Certainly. But could it write better? I’d argue no.
To me, the rewritten paragraph came off flat and void of personality. But even when written in the mimicked voice of Paul, it felt like something was missing. It sounded like Paul … just not quite. Of course, I knew beforehand that the paragraph in question was written by AI. Paul had already given that disclaimer. But even so, I’d like to think that if another member of Plugged In submitted something written by AI, that I’d be able to recognize it. That there’d be some discernable difference between the things they’ve written in the past and the things that the AI created.
However, I work with the Plugged In writers every day. I read, edit and spit their work back out to them—hopefully even better than what they had before. So it stands to reason that I’d have a slight advantage recognizing AI writing within a colleague’s copy.
But what about the rest of the world—people outside the sphere of Plugged In? Would other Focus on the Family employees notice if I submitted something written or rewritten by AI? Could my former teachers, who graded my papers for years, tell the difference? Could my parents?
It’s an interesting question, and I think it’s one that many Christians need to think about and take seriously. When is it appropriate to use AI as a Christian? And does it even matter?
AI in the Church
I’ll start by answering that last question first: Yes, it does matter whether a Christian uses AI. But context is important.
If you’re using AI tools to schedule a meeting or check your grammar before sending an email, that’s probably just fine. However, if you’re using AI to translate and interpret the Bible, you’re potentially inviting in a false prophet.
Allow me to explain by simply quoting Matthew 7: “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” It’s not that AI is a “diseased tree” or even influenced by trees that do not bear good fruit. Rather, it’s that AI isn’t a tree at all. It cannot produce fruit, good or bad.
So, while the use of AI tools isn’t inherently evil, we should exercise extreme caution. And perhaps that paradox is best demonstrated when you consider whether we should use AI in schools and workplaces.
AI in Schools
Is it cheating to use AI at school or as a learning tool? Yes and no.
Suppose you’re assigned a term paper on the first day of class. You’ll have the entire semester to research and then write about your chosen topic. However, you’re a busy student: Between college applications, club meetings, sports practices and obligatory family time, you don’t really have any extra hours to spend in the library reading books, academic journals and scholarly articles for one paper in one class.
So, you use an AI chatbot to help you out—though not in the way most people are probably thinking. Rather than ask the chatbot to write the paper, you merely task it with doing the research. It provides you with summaries of the books and articles and a formatted bibliography. But you write the actual paper.
Did you cheat?
I have a friend who did exactly that. He was an adult student who worked a fulltime job and had a wife and young son at home: He felt his time was better spent with his family.
I couldn’t help but admire his ingenuity. Unfortunately, noble as his sentiment was, I still concluded that he was, in fact, cheating. He hadn’t been given permission to use AI to complete the assignment. Many of his less ingenious classmates were forced to “waste” time actually reading the materials. And frankly, he cheated himself out of the educational experience.
There are, of course, several other arguments to made here: What if you get preapproval from the teacher? What if you’re honest about your use of AI? What if all the other students also use AI to finish their papers? And couldn’t you argue that using an AI to research a paper is the same as using a calculator to finish a math problem?
That’s all well and good, but I would counter that the point of writing a term paper—the point of any education, for that matter—is to learn as much as possible, to become well-versed on the topic and even, possibly, to become an expert in the subject matter.
So I’ll just leave you with this: Would you call yourself well-versed in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth having only watched the Lord of the Rings movies and never read the books?
AI in the Workplace
Of course, if using AI in schools creates waves, then using AI in the workplace creates tsunamis.
AI can be a good thing: Studies have shown that the use of AI tools can help increase productivity. It’s also being used to diagnose and treat diseases. But, as Paul already stated, AI is also a vampire. Anything an AI generator spits out for you—whether it be a development strategy, artwork for a new ad or even a rewritten copy of your own article—is only possible because it drained those ideas out of other people.
This is why we’ve seen so many lawsuits against AI companies. It’s part of the reason why writers and actors in Hollywood went on strike a couple of years ago. And it’s why so many people fear losing their jobs to AI apps.
Obviously, if you claim something created by an AI is 100% your own work, then you’re lying. And as you can see, it can be an ethical nightmare in other ways, too.
So when it comes to using AI at work, pray for wisdom and discernment. James 3:17 says, “Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” If your AI tools produce anything but that, then perhaps it’s best to let them rest.
AI in the World
So where does that land AI and Christianity?
Well, AI can be an amazing tool used for many great (and good) things. But it can also be used for evil. But AI is not, in and of itself, good or evil. At best, AI is an amoral construct limited by the original intent of its programmer.
If AI is misused, be it by Christians or nonbelievers, that’s not on the machine—it’s on the user. As I wrote for Plugged In in 2023: “[Artificial intelligence] doesn’t instinctively know right from wrong. It doesn’t get ‘gut instincts.’ And it certainly can’t be guided by the Holy Spirit. Because for all of humans’ attempts to make AI a sentient being, AI doesn’t have a soul. So at the end of the day, all it can do is try to fulfill the original intent of its creator.”
Yes, AI is fallible. It lies. It mines our personal data, makes us lazier and contributes to a toxic online culture. Sometimes it tries to replace real-world friendships or even mimic romantic relationships. But for all of AI’s cons (and pros, too) we can’t really judge it.
What we can do is think about how, when, where and why we, as followers of Christ, will use (or not use) AI.
If you’d like more information about AI tools and how you and your family can use them responsibly, check out our blog series about AI generators:
