Does God's Word speak about AI?

Dear parents,

If there is one thing I’ve earned in my many years of parenting it is that culture changes and trends come and go, but God’s Word does not. As you encounter new things each year in the culture, stop and always check to see if Scripture has an opinion on it or not. I want to encourage you this month to apply that screening to the topic of Artificial Intelligence.

I think there are several relevant Biblical principles to consider.

Do not steal
If your student is using Chat GPT or other AI platforms to generate answers to questions or to complete a report, they may think they are "working smarter" but in actuality they are stealing. We are starting to see this crop up in the work our students are submitting for our Extension classes. This is plagiarism. If your student is doing this, they are taking someone else thoughts and words and passing them off as their own. This is different than researching several different resources, reading, taking notes, and coming to conclusions on their own. That is what we want our students to do. We want to make sure we are discouraging them from “cheating” and developing a laziness by just copying something they find through AI and not doing any independent thinking. (Exodus 20:15 & Deuteronomy 5:19)

Train your mind
God calls us to train our minds through renewal and meditation and to not be conformed to the patterns of this world. (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 10:5) We want to train our kids to think and learn and to always check things they hear against the truth of Scripture. Just repeating something that they find in an AI blurb dulls their mind and robs them of the chance to sit with a topic think and reflect on it and seek God’s voice about it. We want to train our kids to hear God’s voice and not computer generated “truth.” God calls us to always be ready to give an answer for our faith (1 Peter 3:15) and if we have to stop and check nd see what our favorite AI platform has to say, then we aren't "ready."

Seek Truth
We must be cautious in assuming that anything AI generated is automatically true. It can be a great tool (especially in business when it can summarize a meeting quickly or process a large amount of data rapidly) but don’t let it replace God’s voice and make you lazy in learning how to think. If we haven’t spent time learning on our own, we will not recognize inaccurate info in an AI article. It’s bad enough when an AI article has inaccurate info regarding a historical event or scientific documentation, but it is of the utmost concern when you find incorrect theological information. Learn God’s word first so you can recognize theological errors.

Inauthentic relationships
I would be remiss if I did not also mention the other danger that has been reported when people develop relationships with AI “personalities” and let that replace connection with God’s people. The more a person communicates with an artificial being, the less skilled they become at how to have real relationships that require give and take, patience and kindness, and all the fruit of the Spirit. This can encourage isolation and some very dark behaviors (you can research that on your own.) God calls us to biblical friendships (John 15:13–15) where we serve others and not just “take” from the relationship.

Please ask the Lord how you and your household should respond to this trend in the culture of 2025.
 In His service,
Susan Truman

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