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30: Would an Angel Use AI? · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is Meaningful Work, Calling, Formation,
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Service, and Love.
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A couple episodes ago, I kind of had
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a throwaway comment.
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I mentioned that you as a human person
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can do your work out of love, and
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an AI could never do that.
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And I didn't really have a chance to
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unpack that, so I thought it might be
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good to take a couple episodes and unpack
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some ideas related to AI and related to
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love.
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So as we've kind of looked at these
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different aspects of meaning in our work, we've
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looked at calling, how God's purpose in our
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life gives meaning to our work.
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We've looked at formation, how God can use
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our work experiences, good and bad, to shape
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our character, to refine it, to make it
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more like the character of Jesus.
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We've looked at this idea of service and
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how service is a big component of how
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God shapes our character, but also service is
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part of how God accomplishes things in the
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world, part of how God images himself in
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the world through our work.
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And so now in the final few episodes
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of the series, we're going to look at
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love.
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Now, we've already looked at love in these
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other three parts because you can't look at
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calling, formation and service without looking at love.
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We're really going to kind of focus in
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on love and what love means here at
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the end of the series.
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So before I dive into AI, I want
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to do a little bit of philosophical work
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about the nature of love.
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And we've done this before in other series.
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We've talked about how to love someone is
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to will the good.
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And we've also talked about how there's another
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aspect of love, which is to be in
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union or communion with someone.
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So the two sides of love are willing
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the good in as much as it's up
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to you to seek the good of the
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other person, the person who you're loving.
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And then there's this other piece to be
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in communion or union with that person.
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And that sometimes depends on whether the other
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person is willing for that to be the
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case.
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So there's kind of two sides of love,
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seeking the good and being in union or
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communion.
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One of the thinkers about love who has
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been most helpful to me is St. John
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Paul II, the Pope.
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He was a couple of popes ago now
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at this point.
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But I affectionately call him JP2, along with
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many of my brothers and sisters who appreciate
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Catholic theologians and thinkers, whether they themselves are
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Catholic or otherwise.
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And one of the things that JP2 focused
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on in his teaching was the nature of
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love.
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And there's this quote of his from a
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discourse he gave in 1980 that I just
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want to read here.
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So this is St. John Paul II.
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The human person is a creature that God
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willed for his own sake.
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At the same time, he can fully discover
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his true self only in a sincere giving
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of himself.
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OK, that was really dense, so I'm going
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to read it again.
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The human person is a creature that God
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willed for his own sake.
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At the same time, he can fully discover
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his true self only in a sincere giving
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of himself.
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OK, so two ideas there that St. John
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Paul II is putting forward.
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They're kind of in tension, but they actually
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go together.
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One is that God created the human person
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for his own sake, and JP2 here is
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using masculine pronouns just to have a singular,
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but it would be true of women, too.
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So a creature that God willed for his
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own sake, a creature that God willed for
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her own sake.
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And what's going on there is this idea
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that human beings are not a means to
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an end.
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Human beings are not tools.
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Human beings are not machines.
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Human beings are not just instruments or devices
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that we employ for some greater good other
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than the human being.
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Human beings are ends in themselves.
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Human beings were created for their own sake.
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They are good.
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They are very good, as God declared in
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the Genesis account of creation.
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They exist because it's good for human beings
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to exist.
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OK, so that's one idea.
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But then this idea that might seem in
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tension with that idea is at the same
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time, the human person can fully discover his
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true self only in a sincere giving of
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himself or herself, we could say.
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You only find out who you are when
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you give yourself away.
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You only find out who you are when
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you give yourself away.
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So even though human beings and you as
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a human being, you are an end in
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yourself, you do not exist as an instrument
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for something else.
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You only discover who you really are when
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you give yourself away, when you love, when
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you choose to love something, someone beyond yourself.
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That's when you discover who you truly are.
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I just think this is this is so
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beautiful because, again, there's this tension.
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There's this almost paradoxical nature where, you know,
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it reminds me of passages where Jesus talks
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about it's only when you are willing to
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lose your life that you actually find it.
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It's the first who's the last and the
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last who's the first.
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It's only when you give yourself away that
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you actually discover who you are.
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So so love is, among other things, our
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path to self-discovery.
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It's our path to discovering who we really
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were meant to be.
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You don't find out who you are until
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you love, until you give yourself away.
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This is part of what it means to
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be a person, to be a human being
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as distinct from a machine.
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OK, so that's kind of a high level
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overview of this idea of of love and
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what it means to be human.
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Now, how does that relate to the idea
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of A.I.? Well, I had this really
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funny question occur to me, and that was
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this.
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Would an angel use A.I.? And this
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question occurred to me as I was thinking
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about our daily experience of work because so
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many of my colleagues are using A.I.
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already.
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They're not just thinking about using it.
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I have a lawyer friend at church who's
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using A.I. every day.
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He says it kind of saves him about
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an hour of time when he starts a
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new case, the research phase that he used
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to have to do manually.
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It just pulls together for him and he
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can get to work on the case itself.
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My friends at the food bank are using
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it to write grants or to think about
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how we refine our marketing and communication pieces.
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I even have a friend, he was interviewed
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on this podcast in an earlier series, Ben
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Crocker.
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He's launched a sermon feedback app.
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We'll have a link to that in the
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show notes if you're interested.
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Again, using A.I. And I myself have
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started using A.I. I use it a
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lot to listen to articles when I'm driving
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in the car.
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If it doesn't have an audio version, I'll
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just put it through this app I like
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called Speechify and it reads it to me
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and it can even read it to me
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in specific people's voices, which is kind of
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crazy and fun.
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So I'm using A.I. Many of my
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colleagues are using A.I., but would an
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angel use A.I.? And I don't mean
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like a Hollywood angel like Clarence from It's
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a Wonderful Life who's kind of bumbling and
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well-intentioned.
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I mean, a biblical angel, someone who ministers
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the presence of the holy.
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And when this question occurred to me, my
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gut instinct was, no, no, an angel wouldn't
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use A.I., but then I kind of
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had the question, well, why do I think
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that?
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Right.
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Because angels in the Bible, they use other
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kinds of human technology like stairways or swords
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or staffs or trumpets or scrolls.
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Right.
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The angels use all sorts of tools, kind
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of heavenly analogs to human technology, I guess.
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But it just doesn't seem right to imagine
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an angel holding a smartphone and opening an
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app to get something done.
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It seems laughable.
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Why is that?
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Well, my best guess is that there's something
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about the simplicity of these ancient technologies like
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swords and staffs that we see in the
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Bible that makes them fitting conduits for angelic
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ministry.
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But complex digital technology is remote and it's
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functioning.
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So even if you're holding a smartphone in
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your hand, it's actually sending messages to a
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server that's somewhere far away.
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Right.
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The effect isn't right there.
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It's it's removed.
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It's indirect.
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And angels, rather than being removed or indirect,
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are all about presence.
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Right.
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This is how angels kind of describe their
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work in their ministry.
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So think about in the book of Joshua.
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Right.
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This is before the siege of Jericho or
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that wasn't really a siege.
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They just marched around it.
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Right.
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But before that happens, Joshua was confronted by
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the commander of the army of the Lord.
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This is in Joshua chapter five.
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And then in verses 14 and 15, this
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angel, this commander of the army of the
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Lord says, take off your sandals for the
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place where you are standing is holy.
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The place where you are standing is holy.
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The place.
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It's about presence.
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Why is it holy?
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Because the angel is there.
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And through the angel, God is there.
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When God shows up in a place, that
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place becomes holy and it needs honor.
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You need to to to remove your sandals
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to acknowledge how God is here.
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There's there's an intense recognition of presence.
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That's what angels minister.
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And so the question for me is.
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If angelic ministry is so intensely about presence
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that it's laughable to think about an angel
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using a smartphone, what about our work, our
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human work?
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Couldn't our human work also be about presence
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a lot of the time?
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And I don't I don't want to make
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sweeping generalizations here, like to be human is
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to be present, therefore, AI is bad.
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Right.
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That kind of like Luddite all or nothing
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thinking that's not nuanced.
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That's not dealing with the complexity of the
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issues, especially because the term AI can describe
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so many different technologies.
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Right.
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And the technology is always changing.
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Right.
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It's doing things now that it couldn't do
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before.
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So we've got to evaluate these things with
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discernment.
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But but even as we evaluate things with
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discernment, I think it's important for us to
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think about presence.
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Like what is what does presence mean?
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Right.
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Like the place you are standing as opposed
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to all other places, there's a sense of
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distinctness of limitation.
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Right.
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It's like this place out of all other
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places.
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And that's a feature of human work that's
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different than AI.
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Like so, for example, think about the difference
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between a human author and an AI.
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Each human author has a particular and distinct
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features and not just of what they wrote,
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but of what they didn't write.
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Right.
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In education, there's this concept called the null
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curriculum.
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And that's why you teach by not ever
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mentioning it.
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Right.
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You kind of you choose to teach certain
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things and not to teach others.
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And that says something, too.
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Well, that's true of every writer.
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So writers have what we call a body
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of work, just like the human body.
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It has a starting place and a stopping
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place.
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And, you know, sometimes it's a little flabby
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in certain places.
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Right.
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You know, not every passage from every author
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is the the chef's kiss thing that you
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love from that author.
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And so there's there's this sense of, again,
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what what does human work look like in
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this example with writing?
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I would say distinctiveness and limitation are part
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of what it means to be a human
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author.
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And that's a feature, not a bug.
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That's a good thing.
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The distinctiveness and limitation means I can get
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to know the author's voice.
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I can anticipate that I want to get
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more of their input because I've gotten to
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know them from the distinctions and limitations of
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their earlier choices.
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AI doesn't work like that.
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I can't get to know the body of
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work of AI because it's just sourcing millions
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and millions and millions of inputs.
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It doesn't have this distinctiveness and this limitation
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that a human authorial voice does.
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OK, so this might seem a little bit
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abstract, right?
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Like, OK, maybe with authors, but what about
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with with my daily work?
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So let's get practical.
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What about your daily work is maybe like
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that or it's about that intensity of presence?
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It's about that that distinctiveness and that limitation.
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Sometimes the inefficiency is the point.
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So think about writing a handwritten thank you
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note.
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This is something that I do a lot
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at the food bank because I work with
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our donors.
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I write them thank you notes for their
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donations.
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What makes the handwritten thank you note meaningful?
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It's not just what it says, it's the
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fact that a human being took time to
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write it.
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It's limited, it's personal.
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It's something that I took time to do
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versus everything else I could have done with
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that time.
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And think about on the receiving end, right?
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What is it like for you when you
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get an automated computer printed thank you note,
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which clearly there was no particular attention given
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to that note specifically out of all the
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hundreds or thousands that ran off the printer
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versus if you receive a handwritten thank you
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note specifically to you from a human being
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who wrote it with their own hand.
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It has a deeper impact.
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It has more meaning because of the distinctiveness,
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the handwriting of that particular person, because of
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the limitation that person had to give time
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and energy and focus to do it.
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So sometimes inefficiency is the point.
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And I would argue that that when we're
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communicating love, right, when we're communicating, I want
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to seek what's good for you.
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And maybe I want to connect with you.
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I want to enter into communion or union
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with you.
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Sometimes that takes inefficiency.
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Sometimes that can't be done at scale.
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There's a Christian scholar.
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I personally know him because we live in
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the same area.
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We used to go to the same church
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named Reed Shoeshart, and he writes this.
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I just love this line.
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He says, the opposite of love is not
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hatred.
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It is efficiency.
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Oh, the opposite of love is not hatred.
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It is efficiency, right?
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Oh, man, that's that's challenging.
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And again, I don't I don't want to
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be sweeping with this.
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There are things that it's good to do
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efficiently.
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Sometimes mass production is the right answer when
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it's not about that, that personal touch.
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But I think we need discernment to pay
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attention to what aspects of our work really
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are about that personal touch and not be
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too fast to use AI just because it's
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fast, to not be too efficient just to
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use AI because it's efficient.
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Sometimes the inefficiency is the point.
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Sometimes love requires us to do what Shoeshart
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calls, quote, the slow, difficult work of embodying
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God's love, one embodied soul at a time.
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Lord Jesus, thank you.
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Thank you for the ministry of angels, for
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the ministry of presence, for how you invite
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us to love with distinction, with individuality, with
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limitations.
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Show us how to live inside those limitations
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well and how to make discerning choices about
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the use of AI and other tools we
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might have at our disposal in our work.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
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