When is it appropriate to use AI? 🤖 (A bare minimum litmus test) ✨

I have lots of thoughts about AI, some of which are fairly clear, some less so.

But here are two principles I was thinking of recently that I think are non-negotiable when it comes to using AI, whatever your philosophical views of AI are.

1) Would you think it was OK in principle to delegate the task to another human being?

 

Here's a few examples:

 

Write a political speech. Write a best man speech. Data entry. Write a love letter. Write a social media post. Design your logo. Write a YouTube comment. Ghostwrite a book. Illustrate a book you wrote. Design stickers for you to sell on Etsy. Summarise the minutes of a meeting you were chairing. Write the captions of a video. Summarise an email from a friend. Book-keeping. Research your project. Write alt-text for images on your website...

 

Also, with each of these tasks, would you distinguish between a) delegating a rough draft (which you then take as a starting point and make your own), or b) delegating the entire task?

 

Different people will have different answers to each of these. What I'm asking, is what do YOU think is appropriate to delegate?

• If you'd be willing to delgate to another human, it may be appropriate to delegate to AI (other factors may of course mean it is not).
• BUT if you'd not delegate to a human, what makes it OK to delegate to AI?

We need to think about these things.

 

Would you delegate an illustration to brighten up a text-heavy blog post to AI? I just did. Not sure how I feel about that :-)

2) In a specifically Christian context, assuming your answer to my first question was yes, would it be something you were OK in principle with delegating to a nonbeliever? 

(I'm of course assuming a sympathetic non-believer who will do the task to the best of thier ability, not an anti-Christian troll!)

A few examples: 

 

Write a sermon. Write a prayer. Give you spiritual guidance. Design sermon visuals. Design church publicity. Write a Bible story book. Illustrate a Bible story book you have written. Advise you on the best candidate for a church job. Write a hymn. Write a tune for a hymn you have written. Plan a Sunday School lesson. Draw visuals for a Sunday School lesson you have written. Plan a church rota. Summarise the theological scholarship on a topic. Plus many of the examples in the first section...

Again, different people will have different answers to these. My question is what do YOU think is appropriate to delegate to a non-believer?

• If you'd be willing to delgate to a non-believer, it may be appropriate to delegate to AI (other factors may of course mean it is not).
• BUT if you'd not delegate to a non-believer, what on earth makes it OK to delegate to AI?

We really need to think about these things. 

Oh, and finally, if you have a chatbot that pretends to be Jesus, that is idolatry and blasphemy.

Quirky Sunday School leaders

Came across this in an old magazine I found lying around in church. I liked it.

Embrace the lady who is not seriously on the Asperger's scale, but is unusual. Part of her unusualness lies in her ability to design a £2 torch out of A4 paper, paperclips and a dumpster dive at the local hardware shop. She wants to do it not just because she can but because she knows that Jesus is the light of the world, and that children who do the torch activity will have the torch and handwritten Bible verse sitting on top of their fridge with the other torches for months to come. (This idea may or may not be based on the observation of the top of the author's fridge.)

Embrace as one of the team the unemployable man who really needs as much looking after as any of the children because of his disability issues, but radiates pure joy at being part of the team. Yes, you had to recruit another team member to look after him. No, any sensible analysis says he should have been gently moved aside to whatever places such men are gently moved aside to. But his heart is for the gospel, and has been for many years, and now he is here on the team, and who really knows how God will use him. Perhaps he will simply be a drain on resources. Is this actually bad for the gospel?

(Sorry didn't take a note of the author, but it was an issue of The Briefing from 2013, I think)

Leading a team

Read this in an article in an art magazine. But if you substitute 'artist' with 'team member' it could apply to pretty much any team, doing pretty much anything.

You are all I need

Woke early this morning, my mind whirling with many things. Getting ready for church I was tired, and getting more and more uptight.

In church, the first song we sung was given out by an elderly widower who probably has more difficulties in his life than I can imagine. The song was We bow down and confess, and one line simply says, "You are all I need."

It got me thinking:

When everything seems terrible,  

  you are all I need.
When I'm aware of my sinfulness, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I'm actually good enough, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I can do it on my own, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel inadequate, 

  you are all I need.
When things don't go my way, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to believe, 

  you are all I need.
When I'm full of good ideas for things I want to do,

  you are all I need.
When I worry about the future, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel like a loser, 

  you are all I need.
When my to-do list is growing, 

  you are all I need.
When the world is confusing, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to live your way, 

  you are all I need.

Church service worksheets

Did these ages ago for my own church - finally made them available for everyone!

6 different general worksheets
PLUS 4 communion worksheets
Print as many as you want
Black & white photocopiable versions included

(I've altered this one now, to say "Who read the Bible to us? Draw them."
So can be used even if kids aren't in for the sermon, or if their church uses other terminology like 'preacher')

Sparkles

Cleaning the church during a Holiday Club: the dust is so much more colourful and sparkly than usual :-)

Jesus, hope of the nations

Today at church there were people from:
Scotland, Iran, England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Argentina, Spain, Azerbaijan...