Students are embracing the magical abilities of AI tools in ever-increasing numbers. Theological faculties and seminaries are scrambling to respond with appropriate ethical policies. Developers are forever finding new ways to foil AI detection. Unsurprisingly, specialist theological editors and proofreaders (such as yours truly) are now facing the same fate as the dodo. And isn’t only from self-interest that I consider this a bad thing.
So what then is to be done? In search of an answer, I took a trip into the previously unexplored territory of AI wizardry, and what I found there was more than slightly disturbing.
Disturbing Discovery # 1
In an article promisingly titled “Dangers of Artificial Intelligence to Theology,” published on a conservative Protestant website, Aaron Isaacs explores the “epistemological challenges” of dealing with AI-generated theological text. These challenges include, among others, difficulty detecting the subtle biases, distortions, and doctrinal errors that result from AI’s unreflective automated sweep of all available web-based sources.
The other main theme of Isaac’s article is the way AI undermines the orthodox understanding of the human being made in the image of God. When AI performs the tasks once carried out by human beings, creativity is destroyed, ethical reflection is rendered unnecessary, and relationality and community (“grounded in the image of a relational God)” are eviscerated.
Oh with what premature smug satisfaction I read all this. So many valid points inviting deeper investigation and reflection. Isaacs certainly seemed to know his stuff.
Or did he?
Did Isaacs know anything at all?
For alongside a photograph of the author, the words: “Aidan Isaacs (AI) is not a real person. His profile picture was generated using an Artificial Intelligence image generator, and this article was written using ChatGPT.”
Disturbing Discovery # 2
Once recovered from the shock of finding out just how easily I had been duped, I performed my own version of the experiment. I chose for the purpose an AI website that promised instant essays in theology (or indeed in any other subject).
Margaret E. L.Whibley | “Artificial Intelligence and Theology: Five Disturbing Discoveries” | January 2, 2025
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