Since we had smart phones, our lives have become inseparable from technology. We watch videos online to pass time, understand life events, shop, engage in bank transactions, hail taxis online, monitor happenings of your home from somewhere else, have video calls with family and friends, et cetera, all at the snap of a finger. With the advancement of technology, our lives have become easier. Even in these last three years of the pandemic, it would have been difficult to imagine what our lives would be like if we did not have these technology, including church life. Technology has brought us a lot of benefits, and brings with it greater acceptance and usage. At the moment, the hot topic of discussion is AI chat programs. One of the most well-known should be ChatGPT. Why would a chat program have cause for such big reactions? This chat program’s most shocking point is in its natural language processing, which is essentially the same as that of a real person. It can master and continue to learn humans’ various languages and natural processing. Regardless of grammar, vocabulary, or tone, ChatGPT’s use of language is no different from humans, surpassing the logic processing of conventional computers. Furthermore, combined with a large amount of web data, it becomes an almost omniscient chat partner. From astronomy down to geography, economics, science, literature, recipes, coding, hymns, history, et cetera, it can provide you content that caters to you. Furthermore, it also continues to learn from interactions with the user and gather new content and knowledge. This chat program is no longer a normal computer code. Its wide range of applications has shocked even its developers. As with every new invention, AI chat programs and the AI technology behind it are a double-edged sword: it is very useful, but it could also cause serious harm, or more harm than good. This depends on the people who use it. It can help us to gather data efficiently and, learn new knowledge. But students could just as easily use it do homework, handing the job of thinking, analysing and creating to the AI chat program. Thus, students completely lose the chance to learn and practice. As time passes, they will start to develop the problem of opportunism. Every government has also seen the vast potential of AI, which provides new opportunities for automation in various industries to solve the problem of labour shortage. However, if the pace of expanding this technology is too fast to transform the existing workforce in time, it will create serious social problems: many workers, including white-collar workers and even computer programmers, will lose their jobs.
How should we as Christians view the dilemma AI presents? First, no matter what the new technology is, we should not only be looking at the convenience it brings, the economic advantages, nor how it enriches our lives. These are important considerations. What we cannot overlook, however, is how it would impact our ethics. In fact, we should be guided by ethical principles given by the Word of God to develop and use new technologies responsibly. “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of other . . . whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:23-31).
Coming back to the topic of making use of AI chat programs to aid learning, there are some points that we need to take note. We need to differentiate and understand that the sources of AI are potentially biased. The data presented may not be the objective truth. It can be our starting point as a learning tool. We should still verify, validate and filter the content ourselves. For those of us who are all too greedy for convenience, we need to consciously overcome our inertia and be careful in accepting information. “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps” (Pro 14:15). Additionally, are students wrong in using AI to do their homework? Using AI to help us organise a huge amount of information is a way to increase efficiency. If we go a step further, however, to be lazy and not analyse information, but directly deposit the content received as answers in the homework, this is a case of copying and lying. We have taken another person’s (Artificial Intelligence’s) result to be your own. This opportunistic approach deprives students of the opportunity to practice analysis, comprehension, synthetisation, and writing. Aside from students, many working people have also started to rely on AI for work – completing work reports, writing emails, and even preparing resumes. Of course, the boss or the company might prioritise work efficiency, and hence, encourage the use of IA. However, we need to be careful of only looking at the result and not prioritising actual ability and the attitude of continuous learning. The Bible says, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow” (Pro 13:11). With or without AI, we need to live our lives honestly, and remember that God is our support, not AI, no matter how powerful it may be.
translated by Davina Seet
