I can’t quite decide: Has AI already been around long enough that we can say we’re now living in an AI world? Or is AI so new that it has still only made the smallest impact compared to what will be the case five or ten years from now? Regardless, there’s no doubt that AI is here to stay and that we will all need to learn how to live with it. Even if we choose to avoid using it directly, it is going to be a constant presence in the background of our lives as it becomes a core product for businesses, governments, and every other institution we rely on or interact with. In that way, there is no avoiding it.
I would like to think time will prove that Christians are already thinking about AI in a distinctly Christian way. Those who use AI widely and those who reject it entirely are both under obligation to think about it well. Thankfully, we are quickly being resourced with helpful books that can guide us. The latest of these is Pete Killingley’s A Christian’s Guide to AI: 12 Biblical Answers to the Questions We’re All Asking.
In his book, Killingley does exactly what the subtitle states: he asks a series of questions about AI and then answers them in a distinctly Christian way. His purpose is neither to endorse AI nor to disparage it, but to help readers understand it and, therefore, rightly evaluate it before they integrate it deeply into their lives. Here’s how he introduces this book:
A common view of the church is that we’re always a few years behind the world when it comes to any cultural or technological change. Whether that’s true or not, we should be asking where we want to be as churches: at the forefront of the change or picking up the pieces of the people AI leaves in its wake?
As Christians, we do need to start thinking about AI deliberately. The fact that you’ve picked up this book means you probably agree. It would be so easy for us to split into our camps of tech-lovers and technophobes … and then use or not use AI as we each see fit. Because the Bible doesn’t give us a handbook for how to relate to AI, we would each create our own guidelines, often without a huge amount of thought.
But as I’ve studied AI over the last few years and given seminars on the topic to churches and church leaders, I’ve been struck that although the Bible doesn’t explicitly mention AI, it does give us an abundance of theological themes that help us understand the AI revolution. Whether that be our theology of humanity, of technology, of creativity, of work, of friendship or of the future, the Bible is not silent.
Indeed, it is not.
The book’s first chapter begins with the most basic question of all: What is AI? His definition is simple, and borrowed from David Betts: “a human-made simulation of intelligence in a machine.” Because AI is a mere simulation of intelligence, he suggests we read the acronym as “apparent intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence”—a surprisingly helpful tweak to the term. He explains the different forms AI takes and singles out large language models as the kind we use most often.
The second question deals with our humanity and asks what makes us different from AI. This leads to a discussion of man being made in the image of God and the necessity of holding a high view of our humanity. The next chapter turns to the nature of truth and explains some of the ways AI can distort the truth: through factual inaccuracies, flattery, and bias.
Further chapters offer hope for those whose jobs may be imperiled by AI and explain whether it is right to use it to create art. It then moves to some of the questions that are probably top of mind for the average reader: Can I have an AI friend? Can I use AI to help me with my essay? Should I use AI to help me write my Bible talk? Should I use AI to make important decisions? Can AI help us share the gospel? These are exactly the questions so many of us are grappling with as we see the capabilities of AI and wonder whether we should take advantage of those things it can do.
A surprisingly helpful chapter considers whether we should say please and thank you to AI as we use it, or if it is morally consequential to interact with it using harsh or abusive language. Here he explains the danger of anthropomorphizing this technology and tells why we need to ensure we relate to it as a tool rather than a person. Yet even the ways we interact with our tools shape us, so while we may not need to say please and thank you, we should also never lower ourselves by using nasty language. A final chapter offers comfort to those who are afraid of a tool as powerful and capable as AI and who feel a deep foreboding for the future.
Many months ago, I was asked to read the manuscript and consider penning a short endorsement. I will let that blurb serve as my conclusion to this review: There is every indication that AI may prove to be one of the most powerful and important technologies of our time. We cannot sit idly by but must instead learn what AI is, what benefits it may bring to our lives, and what drawbacks it may exact from them. I’m thankful that Pete Killingley models that kind of deliberate examination and careful engagement in A Christian’s Guide to AI.
