Artificial intelligence (AI) has invaded my life in two surprising ways. Is AI a sinister technology that will someday take over the world and eliminate human beings? Will it be a tool of the anti-Christ that will usher in the end times? Or is it simply a useful tool for reducing much of the mundaneness of navigating through the explosion of information that has saturated our world? It reminds me of the advent of television, when Christians debated whether it was a tool of the devil (since the TV signals travel through the air, which is the domain of the “prince of the power of the air,” a.k.a. Satan, Eph. 2:2). Why would Christians allow the world right into our very homes! Yet now, whether it’s a “smart TV” or a computer screen to watch videos, the issue among Christians is learning to control the media and not letting it control us.

In the field of medicine, AI is proving to be a tremendous help for medical researchers in discovering new treatments for diseases and aiding doctors in making more accurate diagnoses. Students can use AI to improve their writing skills, and it can help professors identify plagiarism in students’ compositions. All these are good uses of this new technology, but in the hands of unscrupulous people, AI can produce “deep fakes,” that is taking Photoshop to the nth degree, producing embarrassing images and videos of people, even making people out to be doing or saying things that are simply fakes—very, very good fakes.

I’ve seen first-hand the benefits of AI when using my online grammar app, through which I pass all my writings, before handing them off to my editors (for whom I am immensely grateful!). It points out my many misspellings, awkward grammar, and dangling sentences and then leaves the more important things for the human editor to notice. It is a helpful tool in my service.

But twice now AI has entered in uninvited, and my juried thinking on this is still undecided: AI can actually compose bibliographical resumes and blog posts. (Not to worry, this post was written genuinely by me). First, an email showed up in my inbox, unsolicited, from a job placement agency, a well-crafted vita, which, by Webster’s definition, is “a short account of one’s career and qualifications prepared typically by an applicant for a position.” Yep, my “professional” life was all there and I have to admit, it was very well written. Somehow AI had picked up the salient aspects of my “career” in pastoral ministry, local church leadership, camp work, writing, and even some of my extra-curricular interests. Of course, AI has a lot of information on me because of my extensive internet presence. Many churches and conferences publish biographies and sermons of their visiting speakers on their websites. Also accessible online are 20-years-worth of my writings, a few different websites that catalog my material, my publisher’s website (Emmaus Worldwide) that describes my books, etc. The vita sent to me wasn’t 100 percent accurate in terms of wording and lacked some of the nuances that we Christians are more familiar with, so it was somewhat secular sounding. But it was astonishingly close! Scary – because it wasn’t a human being who composed it but the code of someone’s creation that searched the internet for information on me.

This seems rather benign on one level, but it naturally poses the question that if AI can do that, what else is it capable of doing in the hands of an evil person? Could photos, videos, and audio files of me be used to create deep-fake sermons that look and sound like me, but preach false doctrine–all to defame me or worse yet lead people astray?

The second invasion of AI into my life came as I was updating some things on my Bible-Equip.org website (which is where this article is posted). The platform I use for managing the website is WordPress (WP). As I opened an editing window to compose a new E-Med posting, a message appeared on the screen suggesting content for my post. Accompanying this was a note saying this was an example of how AI can help produce content for my blog postings. The suggested content was a paragraph about the website, a summary of what Bible-Equip.org was all about, designed for newcomers to the site. I was astonished! While it would require some tweaking, I must admit I found myself thinking, “Why didn’t I think about some of those things, the phrasing, and the smooth prose?”

Here is what it said (produced by AI using the content already on the site and without any alterations by me):

Welcome to Bible-Equip.com, your ultimate resource for equipping believers in our Lord. Explore our articles, courses, and greeting cards to deepen your faith and express your Godly emotions. Praise God with your whole being and discover the wisdom and faith that guide us in our daily lives. Join us in worshipping the Lord, for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture. As we enter this new year, let us embrace the promise it holds and trust in God’s justice. Here at Bible-Equip.com, we encourage critical thinking and empower you to grow in your understanding of the Scriptures. Stay connected with us and follow our journey as we continue to provide valuable resources for believers like you. Follow, share, and join our community today!

 Would it be unethical for me to use this, with some wording changes, and adapt it for my use? It’s not plagiarism, technically speaking, but would I be faking it by passing it off as my own writing? Or is this the same as using the written prayer of someone else, adapting it with changes for my own prayer life? I recently browsed through a small book titled, “The Prayers of Charles Spurgeon” and I found that it inspired me to think more carefully about how I pray and the things I say to God. Do we not sometimes need help in expressing ourselves to God? But what if our wording comes from a source moderated by AI?

So, what do we do with AI? Like quoting from a commentary or popular preacher, in the end we are responsible for the resources we use. My human editors do a wonderful service of correcting and making suggestions for better wording, and if AI can help in more mundane aspects of this, then it is a great tool, just like spell-check has become indispensable in every writer’s tool box.

So, I will tweak the suggested AI content for the “About” of my website and thank God for a useful tool. But, as with all “new” things, I/we need to be cautious in using this tool correctly.