A.I. is not a dark force to be afraid of, it is a tool and like any other tool, it can be used to help or to hurt.
But it is very different in one way that is incredibly important for anyone in ministry and that is for you to understand that YOU can make a difference, a BIG difference to the content served up by A.I on the web.
Please bear with me for a few minutes while I explain this because if you understand what I’m saying and will encourage you to do, it can make a huge difference in the lives of untold multitudes around the world now and into the future.
I am not exaggerating.
Here’s why–following is the podcast and then the rest of the text that goes along with it.
How A.I. works
First of all, a very quick and extremely brief review of how A.I. works.
A.I. is not original; the answers it provides in whatever form are based on what it has learned from the collective wisdom of what it has found online.
What makes A.I. seem so powerful is that it can put together an answer in milliseconds from thousands of bits of information.
But it doesn’t create the information from nothing. It might combine it in goofy ways, in ways that aren’t true, but it has to get that basic information from somewhere. It gets it from what is already on the web.
And that is where YOU come in. That’s where the church of Jesus, his true disciples who believe His Word and trust Him as Lord have an incredible opportunity that many have been blind to.
The negative results of this process
Let me briefly explain some of the negative results of this process and then I think you’ll understand what can happen in a positive way.
I have a friend who is a genius computer person (and would prefer not to be identified). I was talking to him about my ideas on A.I. and how ministries can use it.
He affirmed the ideas I’ll be sharing in a minute, but he also agreed that the reason there is so much junk online is that people with bad intentions understand how A.I. works— and that it doesn’t know what is true or not.
So, he said, when any big issue comes up, they flood the internet with false ideas, videos, blogs, media of all sources because they know that is what A.I. will “scrape” (I’ll explain that word in a minute) their junk information as the source for answers.
“So, we could do the same thing and flood the internet with light. Would that work?” I asked.
“I suppose so,” he answered.
Prepare ministry content for scraping
The process that A.I. uses to gather materials that will then create answers to the questions asked of it is called “scraping.” As in “bots (computer programs that do this) scrape the internet for content.”
They don’t make it up.
They take what is there and use that as their raw materials.
If lots of false, heretical, or just plain dumb ideas about a Biblical theme or doctrine are out there, they get thrown in with everything else. A.I. has no conscience or discernment.
You’ll see the results of this more in the smaller areas of interest that a particular type of content might have. For example, I have a master’s degree in church history and use a lot of historical ideas in my Bible teaching. Because of that, I’m familiar with some of the mainstream, but I believe false ideas about the Bible. When I do a search using A.I. on some of these topics, I tend to get back the false, but popular ideas and little to no mention about the Biblical alternatives, which I know there is much less writing about on the web.
It isn’t a moral fault of A.I. what it returned to me. It simply collected and regurgitated what was available to it.
Not a time for handwringing but for action
Now is not the time to whine about the non-critical nature of A.I.
Our response should be obvious.
We need, as much as we are able, to FLOOD the internet with light, with correct, good, biblical content.
DON’T panic. You are ALL able to do this.
Here’s how to be part of the army of soldiers of light to flood the internet with great content
You already have huge amounts of content in the form of past sermons.
A.I. scrapes (collects) every format. So….
Be sure your SERMONS alone (not the whole service) are on YouTube primarily.
Be sure the ENTIRE TEXT of your sermon is on your church website with a clear, descriptive title.
Devotions, articles, Q & A, whatever way you generate content in your church, get it on the web in video and written form.
And when I say YOU, I don’t really mean you
Many of You are busy enough simply creating the content in the first place. Don’t worry about getting it up on the web yourself.
There are many younger people in your church who could be challenged to do this as a ministry –to take your sermons and sermon text and put them online.
Be sure to include the basics—write an article or two for your website on topics like “How to become a Christian,” “Why you should read your Bible,” “Basic assurances of the Christian Life,” etc. These would probably be good to clarify for your congregations as well as putting them out there to educate A.I.
Don’t worry about making your content perfect. A.I. doesn’t grade you on grammar.
Some final encouragements
How will we know if our efforts are successful? We most likely won’t in this life.
But if many, many of us start doing this, we may see a shift in some answers. Wouldn’t it be incredible if, in the future, anytime someone did a search with something to do with “salvation,” information about Jesus came up?
It could happen.
Finally, in his parting words to His disciples, when Jesus told them they were to be his “witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Being the eternal God that He is, I wonder if a part of Him could have smiled a bit at the confusion of the disciples, who had no idea how they might reach “the uttermost parts of the earth.”
But Jesus knew.
Any one of us can do that today with what we share online. On the internet, our material can go to the “uttermost parts of the earth.”
So, get busy and get it out there!