I am not knowingly using AI but I know Artificial Intelligence is all around me. I have been in meetings or in email conversations where people have used it to get information, produce a document, summarise relevant items and because they know the topics in question, they say, “Hmm, not bad at all!” or “That’s saved me some time and work!”. Most technology is good for us but the issue is always its use. And so we have lots of decisions to make as well as deciding whether some technologies should never be used. Hence I was not overly surprised but still surprised to read an article on the risks of AI chatbots and companions in a lonely world.

The technology is increasingly sophisticated so that people can have real-time conversations and visually interact with onscreen avatars. The calls for age restrictions on the technology and for much more research are happening because initial reports and early research is showing harm happening – ranging from withdrawal from reality into fantasy; inability to judge wisely the advice given by AI; an unhealthy trust in AI ‘therapy’; the AI therapy has been found to be, on occasions, harmful and simply wrong and encouraging destructive behaviour; using AI companions to validate oneself, and more. If our technology gives us dangerous advice and leads to harmful behaviours then there’s cause for concern and action – hence the increasing calls for regulation.

For me, the issue revolves around our physical body, our physical presence, our physical environment because with all our thoughts and imagination we actually live – we exist – where our body is located. Such thinking leads me to the Incarnation – to Jesus’ body and blood – to Christmas most poignantly – to Good Friday in shocked awe – to Easter Sunday and Jesus’ scars on his resurrected body – and to Holy Communion. I am aware that we do not see or hear Jesus physically but the Means of the Spirit – Scriptural words, water, bread and wine – convey Jesus and he is present. I can imagine that people today might see AI chatbots and avatars and think that such is a modern version of the Christians and their Jesus. Except that AI is a human creation – large language models with human biases and prejudices – and Christians hold that Scripture conveys Jesus as he wishes to be conveyed! (This is why we talk about the Bible as inspired by the Holy Spirit.)

I know I cannot prove to the world that the Bible and the story of Jesus is not a human fabrication or a derivative of other human words – just as the world cannot prove that Jesus isn’t still dead and the Bible isn’t a Means of the Spirit. I hold that Jesus is always good for us – he is good to us – and encountering him clearly and truthfully will not result in our harmful behaviour. With words, water, bread and wine, God and us can meet not just in our heads – or our spirits – but where we physically are in our time and place, in what we’re really going through, in our actual life – and Jesus will never abuse us or simply be a remote ‘divine programme’ to get us to do stuff. Rather Jesus always wants us to live life to the full and that means physically – wherever we are – so don’t live your life via a screen! J

GS