AVIZANDUM: The Growing Impact of Artificial Intelligence

Avizandam In Scots law, this term describes the careful consideration given by the judge before an important decision. Join me each week as we explore various topics from a spiritual perspective and take matters. Avise endum Artificial intelligence, or alien intelligence, as the historian Neil Ferguson calls it, is revolutionary. Printing, the steam engine, the Internet revolutionized the world in their day. But artificial intelligence is a revolution like no other.

To take a rather trivial example, Some letters and presentations are now largely being prepared by AI. The smooth and elegant prose of AI, while impressive, does, in my opinion, reduce some of the individuality of the writer or presenter. But I may be wrong in this.

So far I've only checked AI to check some facts and learn about matters of which I'm largely uninformed. My podcasts are not being put through the AI system.

So You will excuse my endeavours, poor word choice and bad grammar. But at least it's my own work. I realize it doesn't have the smoothness of artificial intelligence, but at the moment, Artificial intelligence is largely alien to me. I hear from my friends in the corporate scientific and medical fields that the benefits of AI are enormous. Clearly, AI is here to stay.

But there are some areas of caution. I've informed our pastoral staff that I do not want them to use AI in their sermon preparation. I've never experimented with AI to prepare a sermon. I'm sure it would be well prepared reasonably accurate, and relate to contemporary audiences. But the pastor who uses it will miss out on the wonderful experience of first-hand study, toil.

Prayer. and the wonder of the transformation of Scripture in their own lives. The wise pastor studies Scripture not so he can preach a wonderful sermon, but rather to feed his own soul. and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he preaches from an overflow of Scripture.

He will fall in love with the Saviour in a way. AI can never produce.

So I will keep to the way that generations of my forefathers have prepared to preach. Plagiarism is rife among pastors. and with the advent of AI, Is this simply going to increase? Home technology can be a tremendous blessing. It can also be abused.

Nothing. can replace the word of God prepared and delivered In the Spirit of God. and presented for the glory of God. Recently I read a survey which reported that a third of teens said that they had more fulfilling conversations with AI than with their own friends, parents and acquaintances. This is terrifying.

What does that say about conversations in our homes and our schools? Generation Z doesn't know life without the iPhone. with its instant communication by text and social media. A whole generation is finding it difficult to communicate face to face as God intended. Instead, They retreat into their technological cocoon and interact in cyberspace with an impersonal alien intelligence world.

Let's try to have face-to-face conversations with our teens and our young adults. in our homes, do as generations before us did. sit round the kitchen table having conversations, whether trivial or meaningful. Let us love one another, not through our technology, but rather in person. God is a personal God.

who came to us in the person of his beloved son. Emmanuel, God with us. Alien intelligence, or artificial intelligence, is an amazing development. but it can never replace face-to-face conversations, friendships, and meditation. Avizandam.

You're listening to the weekly Avizandam podcast from The Verdict featuring Pastor John Monroe. John is Senior Pastor at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Listen to John's daily program, The Verdict, on broadcast radio or major podcast platforms. For more information about the Verdict Ministry, visit us online at calvarychurch.com/slash the verdict.