We are now in the long stretch of ordinary time in the church year; a time to wrestle with and ask questions about faith and life. I have found myself reflecting a lot on AI recently and in particular the questions it raises for us about what it is to be human, but also what it says to us about God. Just a few small topics!

Pope Leo’s May encyclical Magnifica humanitas: On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence draws on two biblical images of building to help us navigate the world of AI; the construction of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 2-6).  The building of the Tower of Babel warns against hubris – an over confidence in our own abilities, which allow us to dismiss warnings including the belief that we no longer need God. In contrast, Nehemiah undertakes the rebuilding of Jerusalem with humility; through prayer, in consultation with the people, he coordinates efforts and addresses opposition. These two frames capture something of what it is to be human – we love our ideas and even more so that we might be able to save ourselves from hard or boring work, discomfort and mortality, but then we discover meaning in the way of humility when we are ‘wise architects’ (as Pope Leo puts it) and work towards the common good.

Since the industrial revolution we have been replacing human work with machines with the goal of ever-increasing productivity. But we never seem to question the goal of productivity itself. This I think is one of the pithy challenges of the encyclical about what it means to be human in today’s world: “if every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. … persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves.” (Para 59) The way of discipleship in contrast is a process of growing in faith and love, sometimes we never know the results of our kindness or service. And more to the point, our ‘productive’ working lives are quite short. We spend time as babies and if we are lucky in old age. We all have different abilities and all of this is seen and loved by God. As Pope Leo reminds us “building for the common good means accepting the limits and weakness of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected”. (para 12)

But this is not to deny how hard it is be human, and having to accept the limitations of having a mortal body that also feels pain. In Anna Goldsworthy’s Quarterly Essay on AI ‘The God we created’ she reflects on hearing an AI directed choir; the voices perfectly in sync and going to a choral recital where the voices had slight imperfections, but the experience moved her to tears. There is something in being human that means we want to connect emotionally with each other, even if it is at a level we don’t really understand. In music, in art, in participating, in the very act of being creative we also connect with God, the ultimate source of creativity.

It is misleading to talk about AI as intelligent. Whilst AI may be able to process large amounts of data and ‘learn’ from it, we reduce what it is to be human if that is all we think intelligence is about. We possess emotional, social and body intelligences, we also weigh things up morally and take responsibility for our actions. It strikes me that we need to claim what it is to be human in order to navigate an AI influenced world. And strangely we learn what it is to be human by knowing we are not God, whom we come to know through the stories of the Christian faith.

Rev Cath James, Minister of the Word, Brunswick UC
first published in the July Olive Branch newsletter