May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands. — Psalm 90:17 NIV
In this four-part series, I’m approaching several topics from both spiritual and creative viewpoints.
- God, not artificial intelligence (AI), blesses the work of our hands, and that’s the key point of the series (Part 1).
- Using AI can lead to spiritual slothfulness, and it’s subtle, so we must remain on guard (Part 2).
- When the use of AI becomes an idol, the Bible warns of the dangers of idolatry (Part 3).
- Make informed decisions based on your awareness of AI’s consequences (Part 4).
For example, I’ll showcase the spiritual risks of using AI instead of your God-given talent and creativity.
In the series wrap-up, I’ll highlight from a creative’s perspective the actual and potential harm caused by using AI.
Note: On the topic of AI, I’m no expert. Instead, I’m more like the sixth-grade crossing guard who knows just enough to help the younger students avoid the risks.
Work with All Your Might!
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. — Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV
God’s Generational Instructions
The Lord gave Moses and Joshua generational instructions (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 32:45-47; Joshua 1:6-9 NKJV) about learning and meditating on His Word so that we would not trade the Lord’s way for something else, like using AI.
Using AI exposes you to many risks. For example:
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AI can shift your focus away from the Lord and onto worldly things. Use discernment to perceive the difference between God-inspired human endeavors and digital regurgitation of what AI has stolen from people.
- For instance, you can prompt Canva (based on OpenAI GPT-4) to generate a Bible character for a post, yet that’s not a work of your hands, but a machine-generated representation using pixels stolen from mostly copyrighted images.
- In contrast, the careful selection of an image of an artist’s God-inspired art or an actual photo shows how the Lord inspires and blesses our human creativity, yours and the artist’s.
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Instead of giving credit to God for the legitimate work of your hands, AI lures you into putting your name on work stolen from others.
- To create AI models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude), computer bots scoured the internet for images and text, scraped and stored in the computer mostly without the owners’ permissions.
- Some AI executives allowed employees to train AI models using thousands of pirated books without the permission of the authors.
- Prompts to AI return output composed of those scraped words and images.
- Text can contain verbatim words taken directly from copyrighted material.
- Likewise, images produced by AI can imitate people and artists who have not permitted use.
Evidence shows AI is addictive, and for Christians, that means you risk creating an idol and committing spiritual adultery.
Turn Knowledge into Wisdom
Traditional learning follows a path to turn passive knowledge into actionable wisdom (e.g., a new skill or a problem solution).
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Unaware
The journey to gain wisdom begins with you unaware of what you need to know.
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Aware
At some point, an event of sufficient urgency makes you aware of your need for knowledge.
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Learn and Practice
You study a topic diligently to gain that knowledge, then practicing its use turns it into wisdom. The time to learn and practice varies by topic, talent, and diligence.
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Use God’s Wisdom Intuitively
In time, like muscle memory, you recall wisdom intuitively, making it available for immediate use.
No Compromise with God’s Truth
The sure counsel of God’s wisdom (Proverbs 8:12-21 NKJV) gives you the freedom and joy to use your hands and create with confidence.
However, AI deceives you into compromising God’s Word.
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AI woos you into reliance on an unreliable advisor, leading you astray with falsehoods worded as if all are true.
- AI frequently hallucinates, which means it makes things up.
- For example, because of these frequent hallucinations, you cannot trust AI to generate a commentary on scripture without the potential to compromise God’s Word and risk your reputation.
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Without time-intensive validation of the output, AI’s hallucinations, errors, stolen material, and falsehoods can make you look foolish and even destroy your reputation.
No Shortcuts
As you follow the traditional learning path marked with scriptural guideposts, honest study, and hard work, God blesses the work of your hands.
In contrast, the AI path lacks reliable markers, and you’ll soon run into sinful distractions, misleading advice, and false output.
Note: The time to fully validate AI output often takes more time than if you had performed traditional research and writing.
Avoid the Risk of Disobedience
Christians using AI risk spiritual disobedience. For example:
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Your Hands (God’s Blessing)
Part 1 emphasized that God, not artificial intelligence (AI), blesses the work of our hands.
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Slothfulness (Spiritual Laziness)
Part 2 of this series concentrated on the negative effects of delegating to AI your God-given ability to learn, work, and create.
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Idolatry (Spiritual Adultery)
Part 3 focused on the risk of letting AI replace your reliance on God, trusting the computer instead of the Lord.
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Actual and Potential AI Dangers
Part 4 concluded the series, highlighting that the world knows but does not emphasize how AI endangers your soul, family, and livelihood.
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