We can use it to create cute memes and profile pics to make us look cool or better than real life. We can use it to create research papers we either forgot to do or never intended to do for ourselves. We can use it to manufacture pictures and videos of nature and events which seem to be real but we all know are not. We can adjust the records of reality to suit our politics or to insulate us from liability. We can do all of these things but in the end we find ourselves struggling to know what was AI and what was real. It has left us with a great question mark over things that were once rather easy to count upon as real -- whether we like that reality or not.
I am reminded of the great promises of the internet and social media. And of the disappointments that have accompanied each. All the power and possibility of the world wide web has been squandered on porn and scam artists. In the same way, the hopes and dreams of social media have been dashed on the rocks of bigotry, hate, bullying, and predatory behaviors that now make us want to protect our children from it all and somehow figure out how we can survey it all without being hurt. Yes. There was a time when we thought it would help our isolation and call us out of our depression or ease the ever present fears. So much for that. Instead we have seen all of these increase with every advance of the platforms designed to relieve the problems.
In the Church what began as a curiosity has probably developed into a bad habit. We use AI to invent reviews to make us look better than we are, to create sermons and Bible studies when we were pressed for time, and to figure out what the nones and unchurched are looking for in a congregation. Is AI helping or hurting the Church and her mission? These are the questions we ought to be asking of ourselves and of the way we have been so quick to think that technology has answers to the problems we face as Church.
There are great questions for the world outside the Church as well. What about the tremendous demands laid upon our power grid or the data centers being planned for across the nation? How many windmills does it take to plug in all the drives and fuel the memory modules that AI will require of us? Sadly, there is probably more interest in this side of things than the morality of it all or the confusion that has left us unable to decide what is created and what is real. The Church ought to have a voice in this conversation. What is moral and right and salutary about the use of AI is precisely our realm -- if we can back away from it all enough to think about it. Under all of the moral challenges is the question of how we use our time and whether AI helps us to do something more noble with our time or squander it before the broken promises of screens. Until this happens, I fear we will waste more time on AI generated goofiness.
A lifetime ago, my small town in Nebraska was filled with business and farms and kids and life. Today the main drag is a ghost town. There will come a time when you will not be able to buy a gallon of milk in town much less the groceries, clothing, lumber, hardware, produce, meat, paint, tackle, cars, farm implements, and everything else needed for everyday life then and now. Amazon has replaced the local businesses and the big chains now provide what we need -- albeit 30-50 miles away from where folks live. Is it better? Has life improved? I fear that one day we will awaken and what big box chains and delivery to the door has done to small towns will happen when AI takes control. I am not trying to be prophetic but to suggest that we ought to be more concerned about this side of things and not just if it works.
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