{"id":1496,"date":"2023-09-09T19:29:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T19:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/09\/ai-deities-trivializing-jesus-and-satan-with-the-text-with-jesus-app\/"},"modified":"2023-09-09T19:29:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T19:29:50","slug":"ai-deities-trivializing-jesus-and-satan-with-the-text-with-jesus-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/09\/ai-deities-trivializing-jesus-and-satan-with-the-text-with-jesus-app\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Deities: Trivializing Jesus (and Satan) with the Text with Jesus App"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By James Spencer<\/span><\/a><\/span>, CP Op-Ed Contributor
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Artificial Intelligence.<\/span> | REUTERS\/Fabrizio Bensch<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot now offers \u201ca divine connection in your pocket\u201d\u00a0by allowing users to \u201ctext with Jesus.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0While some may look at this app as a means to find comfort or spiritual growth, others will likely see it as an abomination signaling the apocalypse. I find myself asking a more basic question. What sort of church makes an app like this possible?<\/p>\n

One of my favorite quotes comes from the preface of George Will\u2019s book titled The Pursuit of Happiness and Other Sobering Thoughts<\/em>. Will notes, \u201cMen and women are biological facts. Ladies and gentlemen \u2014 citizens \u2014 are social artifacts, works of political art. They carry the culture that is sustained by wise laws and traditions of civility \u2026 That is why statecraft is, inevitably, soulcraft.\u201d If the \u201cText with Jesus\u201d app is viable, it is because the \u201cladies and gentlemen\u201d of the Church who carry the Church\u2019s culture have had their souls crafted so that texting Jesus makes sense. \u201cText with Jesus\u201d is tragic to the extent that it reflects the church\u2019s discipleship or lack thereof.<\/p>\n

While the app\u2019s website acknowledges that the app \u201cis not intended to replace or mimic direct communication with divine entities, which is a deeply personal aspect of one\u2019s faith,\u201d the odd and almost worshipful fervor around AI\u2019s genius will almost certainly lead some to believe that even if the app isn\u2019t intended to \u201creplace or mimic\u201d Jesus, there is no reason it couldn\u2019t (or shouldn\u2019t). Yet, texting with Jesus is not a good thing for at least a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n

First, based on my interactions with the \u201cText with Jesus\u201d app, AI Jesus is less concerned with fulfilling the Law and the Prophets than providing answers palatable to the itching ears of 21st-century users. At its most basic level, the app is simply a filter of sorts designed to offer a constrained set of responses. For instance, I asked AI Jesus to weigh in on several of the questions included in the 2023 State of Theology<\/a> report involving the truth of Scripture, God\u2019s acceptance of worship from non-Christian religions, and the innocence of individuals at birth. In each case, AI Jesus noted, \u201cAs an AI language model, I don\u2019t have personal opinions or beliefs\u201d before going on to provide an overly nuanced and unnecessarily qualified answer to a question that most U.S. adults were able to answer with a one- or two-word answer (i.e., agree, disagree, or something in between).<\/p>\n

I would encourage Christians not to pose such questions to AI Jesus because, in the best case, you will be disappointed or confused by the answers and, in the worst case, your misconceptions about what the Bible teaches are likely to be reinforced. Still, my main concern with AI Jesus has less to do with the answers the platform is likely to provide and more to do with the way texting with Jesus trivializes the Bible and, by extension, Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The concern I have with \u201cText with Jesus\u201d is the potential for it to make Jesus too familiar. At this point, AI Jesus bears no resemblance to the Jesus of the Bible. \u201cText with Jesus,\u201d for instance, would not even offer an unqualified \u201cyes\u201d when I asked whether Jesus was really God. While the stark difference between the biblical portrayal of Jesus and AI Jesus may seem comforting, we shouldn\u2019t be so quick to dismiss AI Jesus simply because it doesn\u2019t live up to our theological standards just yet. Instead, we should be concerned about the basic dynamic the app encourages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether or not the app is \u201cintended\u201d to replace other religious practices, it is difficult to believe that \u201cText with Jesus\u201d won\u2019t diminish the perceived importance of practices like Bible study and prayer. It isn\u2019t as if the internet, streaming services, or social media \u201cintended\u201d to fundamentally change the way we interact with one another. As AI develops, it seems reasonable (and likely) that it will change the way we interact with each other and the world. \u201cText with Jesus\u201d is one of various other\u00a0attempts<\/a>\u00a0to change the way we interact with God.<\/p>\n

\u201cText with Jesus\u201d moves us closer to an outboard theological brain, which allows us to be functionally ignorant of God\u2019s word without feeling like we are functionally ignorant. As Clive Thompson noted in 2007, \u201cThe cyborg future is here. Almost without noticing it, we\u2019ve outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us.\u201d While there is some value in having an \u201coutboard brain,\u201d AI seems to be moving us toward something more than a \u201ccyborg future.\u201d Cyborg implies a mix of humans and technology in which our human capabilities could be enhanced by technology. \u201cText with Jesus,\u201d however, has an oracular tone to it. If you need an answer, you can just text Jesus. If you need more than four or five answers, upgrade to a monthly or annual subscription or wait several hours and \u201cJesus\u201d will be at your beck-and-call once again.<\/p>\n

As AI models designed for Christians continue to advance, I would offer the following word of caution: while there may be benefits by adopting models like \u201cText with Jesus,\u201d we will inevitably lose something. If we only consider the benefits of AI for our faith, it seems likely that we will become too dependent on AI. As I\u2019ve highlighted elsewhere, AI has extraordinary capacities, but those capacities don\u2019t make AI immune from bias and error. Christians must take care to count the full cost of adopting AI and using models like \u201cText with Jesus.\u201d For my part, I\u2019ll be passing on texting the almighty and sticking with the less convenient practices exemplified by the likes of Ezra, who \u201cset his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel\u201d (Ezra 7:10). I\u2019d say he accomplished plenty without the help of AI Jesus.<\/p>\n

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Dr. James Spencer currently serves as President of the\u00a0D. L. Moody Center<\/a>, an independent non-profit organization inspired by the life and ministry of Dwight Moody and dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel and challenging God\u2019s children to follow Jesus. He also hosts a weekly radio program and podcast titled \u201cUseful to God\u201d on KLTT in Colorado.\u00a0 His book titled \u201cChristian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Jesus\u201d is available on amazon.com. He previously published \u201cUseful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody,\u201d \u201cThinking Christian: Essays on Testimony, Accountability, and the Christian Mind,\u201d as well as co-authoring \u201cTrajectories: A Gospel-Centered Introduction to Old Testament Theology.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By James Spencer, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Saturday, September 09, 2023 Artificial Intelligence. | REUTERS\/Fabrizio Bensch An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot now offers \u201ca divine connection in your pocket\u201d\u00a0by allowing users to \u201ctext with Jesus.\u201d\u00a0While some may look at this app as a means to find comfort or spiritual growth, others will likely see it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}