…technology cannot replicate the human warmth
By Nadine Wilson-Harris
Jamaican pastors are unbothered about a fast developing trend in sections of Europe, where artificial intelligence (AI) chatbox are being used to deliver thought-provoking sermons to packed churches. Local clergymen argue that technology cannot replicate the human warmth that congregants crave.
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston, Kenneth Richards, does not believe members of the clergy should be threatened by the technology, which he noted has both positive and negative implications.
“You will always need pastors because artificial intelligence cannot relate on the human level that pastoral care requires,” he said when asked about the prospects of the technology minimising the need for pastors locally.
“AI can be used for research, but for the integrity of the proclamation of the word, I think preachers have a responsibility to make sure that they have reflected on and interpreted the scripture and allow the speaking of the Word to come from that kind of engagement rather than for it to be formulated artificially,” he asserted.
Religious leaders in Western and European countries have been dabbling with the use of ChatGPT to create sermons generated from the assembling of religious texts from eminent theologians.
A rabbi in New York, Joshua Franklin, said he was “deathly afraid” after several of his congregants applauded him for the 1000-word sermon ChatGPT had generated for him, which dealt with issues such as trust, vulnerability, and forgiveness.
“I thought truck drivers were going to go long before the rabbi in terms of losing our positions to artificial intelligence,” the New York Post reported Franklin telling his congregants after revealing to them that the sermon was written by a robot.
A sermon delivered by an Al chatbox at a protestant church in Germany earlier this month was a shocking reality for many that artificial intelligence is breaking new barriers daily. Hundreds of worshippers packed the historic church to listen to the sermon on themes such as “living in the present”, “maintaining faith in Jesus Christ” and “not being afraid of death”, which was delivered by four different avatars.
“Dear friends, it is an honour for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany,” one of the AI avatars said.
Archbishop Richards agrees that we are living in a very scary period. He believes there is the need to discuss ethical concerns regarding the use of artificial intelligence, but he thinks there is scope for discussion about its potential benefits as well.
“Humans are still going to be in charge. It will be a long way before it is possible for AI to become autonomous. It is almost impossible to take over human activity,” he shared.
Nigel Coke, communication, public affairs and religious liberty director of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Church, said he is not aware of the extent to which artificial intelligence is being explored in Jamaica, but he believes its emergence is something everyone should note.
“There are opportunities, especially for research, [but] you would have to verify the accuracy of it. Like the internet and anything in life, it is not just advantages that are there, there are also disadvantages,” he said.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church operates the Mandeville-based Northern Caribbean University. While noting that artificial intelligence poses some amount of challenges in the area of academia, Coke said the Union, which has 740 congregations islandwide, has not discussed the implications for churches. Such a discussion cannot be ruled out, however.
“It is not something going; it is coming. It’s an emerging situation. Let’s see what happens,” he said.
Bishop Herro Blair Jr. admitted that his knowledge of AI is limited, but he is certain that its usage will have both positive and negative implications for the church. The former national director at Jamaica Youth for Christ is particularly concerned about how it will impact children and youth. He believes unhealthy access could expose children to information that is not morally grounded and could cause them to lose their sense of identity, sense of purpose, and ability to make decisions on their own.
“What will AI cause? I don’t know. Will it bring negative values or negative influences? I don’t know, but obviously, AI will also pull out the creative mindset of churches, the creative mindset of children. As with all things, [it should be] used moderately,” the pastor admonished.
Bishop Blair cautioned that we should not dismiss the fact that the creators of Al are expressing some amount of concern.
Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called the “Godfather of Al” has been speaking out against the dangers of the technology which he helped to develop. He went public with his concerns after leaving Google in May of this year. Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT has admitted that the technology comes with real dangers.
“I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation,” Altman said during an interview with ABC News in March this year.