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Opinion

For God’s Sake

| Michael Bannon
“I read it on the internet, so it must be true,” has been the running joke for years among those who know that information retrieved from the internet is notoriously unreliable. Now we have AI, artificial intelligence; how reliable is it?

About two years ago, I wrote a column about a Bavarian church’s experiment with AI, then a new technology. The church let a ChatGPT chatbot generate and execute every aspect of the worship service. The congregation’s response was mixed. Now two years later, AI has become mainstream and church leaders have found it necessary to weigh in on its usefulness. A few of the authors I read saw it as a useful research tool, so I decided to test it out in that capacity.

In prepping for a sermon in a series on the Book of Acts, I was in Chapter 13 where a confrontation is recorded between the Apostle Paul and a Jewish magician named Elymas Magus, who opposed the gospel. Paul calls Elymas a “son of the devil.” I was curious to know if anyone else in Scripture was ever called a son of the devil. I put the question to Google, and the first response was AI generated. It reported that there was only one person in Scripture who was called a son of the devil – the Apostle Paul in Acts 13. Hello?

Next to that answer were the ubiquitous “thumbs up-thumbs down” icons; I selected thumbs down. A response window opened asking for an explanation. I stated that AI was wrong, that it was Paul who called Elymas Magus as son of the devil. That was about a month ago and the last time I checked, the wrong answer remained. A week later, I needed to check the accuracy of a quote and once again performed a Google search. The AI generated answer attributed the quote to the author’s brother. Close, but no cigar!

When the Apostle Paul preached the gospel in a synagogue in Berea, Scripture records that his Jewish audience, “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Theirs was a commendable practice then and a much-needed practice now.

There was a time when pastors exhorted their congregations to not simply take as truth what they heard preached, but to “be a Berean.” That exhortation needs to be revived and amplified to include being a Berean in what you read on the internet. My own experience showed that the AI answers were inaccurate.

There is a great benefit in doing your own personal study in Scripture, reading it carefully, comparing Scripture with Scripture. In the journey of investigation, you learn additional truths that not only direct you to the answer you are seeking but also enrich your life. Letting a machine do your thinking for you will provide you with a quick answer, but it may not be a correct answer, and your life is scarcely enriched in the process. Be a Berean!

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