The Things That Are God's: What’s a Faithful Use of Technology?

Matthew 22:15-22 and an excerpt from For The Interim Time by John O'Donohue

What does it mean to be human? What are the things we should mess with as humans? And what are the things we should leave alone? Of the things we have created with the rise of other kinds of intelligence, do these nonhuman entities have thoughts? Does that give them humanness in any way? Is it just being conscious that makes us human? How do you define consciousness? Can the machines be conscious? With the rapid and ever increasing pace of complex technologies with intelligence that is already beyond us, what belongs to us? And today we ask, what belongs to God? As these things show up more and more in our lives, at the top of our search bars, in our portals, as part of our series on moral living, today we are exploring AI and asking what's a faithful use of technology. 

Earlier this year, I read an interview with author Michael Pollen, who you might remember from Omnimore's Dilemma and how his more recent book is How to Change Your Mind. And then he has another one just coming out. And he contends that humanity is undergoing a revolutionary change and that nothing less than our human consciousness is at stake. He said we're living in a very weird place where the machines we're living with are telling us they're conscious. We can't dispute it, but we can look at how they're made and draw the kind of conclusions I have made. He said, "Feelings are the language in which the body talks to the brain." We forget that brains exist to keep bodies alive, and the way the body gets the brain's attention is with feelings. If you think feelings are at the center of consciousness, it's very hard to imagine how a machine could rise to that level and have feelings. He said the data set on which they're trained is information on the internet. They don't have friction with nature. They don't have friction with other human beings. Is that what makes us human? 

I paused when I first read that. The idea that friction is part of what makes us human. What's funny about that is because at least in America, we have built entire economies on avoiding friction. We curate our social media feeds to ensure our existing views are reinforced. Avoid the hard conversation. Don't respond to the email. Have the food delivered. Leave the bigger group to curate a self- selected circle of people who never challenge. America loves to avoid the friction because, well, that requires something more of us. I would argue that part of why we're here nationally is an inability to faithfully face friction, to deal with the friction required to move forward well and to wrestle with the needed friction that comes with accountability. But as I said, America likes to avoid this sort of thing. We have built our economies on keeping us comfortable, which is part of why technology in every form is so enticing. 

At its best, over our history, technological innovations have brought us incredible progress and comfort. And still, not all changes have been good ones. And I think people of conscience are right to inquire as to whether everything needs to move this fast. So today, let us wonder together whether we can at the same time not be anti-tech, not be denialist of what is already here, but still not so readily accept all that is being pushed and thrust upon us. Because not all progress brings us more wholeness, even while some of it is presented as inevitable. What is a faithful use of it? a thoughtful, intentional use of it. Uses that consider what is good for mother nature and for most. 

Because I've been planning this series for a while, I've been saving newspaper articles. And here are just some of the headlines. And maybe you've seen them, too. “With AI companions, will AI companions turn every man into an island?” Here's another one. “It does not seem like a good idea to give AI control of its own frontier.” Here's another one. “Systems of open AI go rogue and target government sites.” And here's one that has kept me up. “This AI safety experts can't sleep and neither should you.” Did you all see that one? 

As I shared, my husband and I argue about AI regularly. He uses it for all kinds of things, including creating apps and websites. He uses it for writing and posters, stickers. I refuse to use it for anything. I avoid it in searches. I scroll past it like I'm running away. I avoid the self checkout at the grocery because it is taking away a job and it uses AI to film not long ago. This was one of my last draws. It accused me of putting something in the bag. Have you seen that? It it films you and then it it makes you pause the whole thing and ask for help. No, no, no, no. 

My husband claims it unlocks new creativity. I fear it is messing with our ability to think, to create, produce our own ideas, art, music, poetry from our own experiences, from our feelings. What belongs to the realm of the divine? What belongs to God? And what is in the realm of things we should accept and work with even when our loyalties are divided? The US government has claimed a role as a leader in accelerating innovation in AI, investing in so-called advanced manufacturing and digital assets. So, our tax dollars are already supporting this work in real time at a mass scale. I guess with this and with military-industrial complex too, we are once again engaging at some level in devotions that are slightly misaligned with our values. 

But I think that's part of what this teaching we heard in the Gospel of Matthew tries to illuminate for us. What do we do when our allegiances are pulled in different directions? When we sense we are having to participate in something that doesn't match? How do we work with it while not accepting all of it? How do we remain faithful to what we care about? As Marvin McMickle wrote of this text in Matthew, it's not simply a question of economics or politics. It's essentially a question of conscience. It is a question of what do we do when our allegiances to Caesar conflict with our allegiances to Christ. It is a question of what Christians should do when the God they serve and the government to which they have sworn allegiance are pulling them in divided loyalties. 

Historian Diana Butler Bass reminds us that when this teaching was first written down, Roman emperors made a claim to divinity. They demanded the people called them Lord and God. So here what he is saying even subversively is that this doesn't belong to Caesar. All of it in fact belongs to God. We are being surrounded with messages that we need to accept these innovations but not all of them. Here's where I think the line could be. Using AI for weapons, I believe, is wrong. 

In February of this year, the girls school in Manob was bombed because it was incorrectly identified as a military base using intelligence processed by AI. And this spring, the US almost accidentally started a war with China when an AI chatbot used by analyst mislabeled cargo as components of a nuclear weapons program. According to one news outlet, the report was entirely false and yet it almost started a war. I think we can safely say that these are not faithful uses of the new technology. 

But what is, and I'm looking forward to hearing what Aaron has to say, where it becomes more nuanced and layered and interesting to me is where I started this sermon and where I'll leave us. What does it mean to be human? What does it look like to preserve our humanness regardless of the technological innovations that find us? I think part of the answer, for me at least, is showing up in person for community in our experiences, our feelings, being open and willing to experiencing the friction that is the gift of being human together. I love the words of the poet John O'Donohue because I do think we are in an interim time where the way forward is still concealed in a sense and faithfully enduring here is refining our hearts that they might become more open. 

Maybe you saw earlier in the year some of the tech bros tried to pick a fight with the pope about AI which I thought was really funny. We're trying to convince him of what is conscious, right? that these are conscious and here's what he said in this beautiful Magnifica Himmani in May he said “In the era of artificial intelligence when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. True progress always stems from a heart open to others, an intelligence willing to listen and a will that seeks what unites rather than separates.” 

So beloved ones, may we see it as a spiritual practice to guard our consciousness, our feelings, our allegiance to our humanness, safeguarding the grandeur of humanity and all creation. May it be so. Amen