Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Autocorrect, the Church, and Spirituality

Once while typing “The United States of America” I found autocorrect completed my words. Autocorrect an algorithm driven by artificial intelligence made the passage read, “The Ignited States of America.” Given the situation where rewritten history says American slaves felt lucky to learn useful skills, and where recent gains in gay and women’s rights are eroding, I thought that “The Ignited States of America” was perhaps not a bad autocorrection.

We rely on autocorrect, artificial intelligence, and algorithms (the 3As) more than we realize. They are linked to a 4A where Lord Acton’s famous line of 1887 stated that, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely…” These 4As affect society, religion, and our spiritual selves far more than we realize. Would you believe that may soon have robots providing pastoral care in hospitals?

A few decades ago when preparing sermons preachers took time, effort, and discernment diving into resources. Today, the new God – “Google,” does those tasks in nanoseconds. Human involvement in time, effort, and discernment is diminished and discounted.

Many may use the offered resources to “cut and paste.” Some may revert to plagiarism. A few years ago, an American cleric was fired when it was discovered that the weekly sermon was simply downloaded from another’s weekly posted sermon. For shame!

Artificial intelligence and algorithms are so incredible that even after “listening to” a human voice speak a few words, the voice can be mimicked. So, if the church calls asking for an immediate donation, be dubious! It may be “Big Brother” calling.

The 4As do much thinking. But where are prayer, silence, meditation, and essential human face-to-face interactions? In the 1950s, German philosopher Martin Heidegger foresaw noting that the looming “tide of technological revolution” could one day “so captivate, bewitch, dazzle, and beguile man that calculative thinking may someday come to be accepted and practiced as the only way of thinking. This “frenziedness of technology,” he said is “entrench itself everywhere.” He was right. Research is showing that we accept almost everything the machine tells us, and we encourage the machine to then act. We trained the machine which is now training us.

If we are so unwittingly entrenched by the 4As, where are solitude, silence, and prayer? Our phones are the new Bible. They give us ALL the answers.

Through much of Christian history people believed God lived in the clouds. That must be right because we now store data, information, and knowledge, (dare we add wisdom?) “In the cloud,” in the DIKW world!

It is essential to look at how artificial intelligence and algorithms are embedded in all aspects of life. But we sorely need to autocorrect ourselves and be guided by the Holy Spirit. While the 4As do much for us, we need to step back and step down from much to be silent, to listen, and then act for Christ, and ourselves.

Rev Canon. Dr. David John Robson is a local cleric and a researcher looking at postmodern society, the church and spirituality.