Elspeth Kernebone
28 February 2024
Melbourne Christians have the chance to engage with questions about artificial intelligence technology at an upcoming science and Christianity event.
Technological and biblical experts will speak into AI at ISCAST event AI X Christianity: Gospel Wisdom for an AI World.
Panellist, FaithTech Oceania regional manager Adrian Tam said he hoped to impart courage to those attending. He said there were dangers, but Christians could courageously step into the AI space knowing they had a mission, and knowing they had the Holy Spirit.
FaithTech is a Christian tech organisation which aims to help people in the tech industry find community and use their skills to glorify God.
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Mr Tam said AI X Christianity would help people engage with AI through a gospel and theological lens, on a practical level.
He said he hoped to hear stories of Christians bravely venturing into the AI space because they saw its potential redemptive impacts.
Mr Tam said Christians also had a huge responsibility to get upstream of AI technology, to shape it from the beginning. He hoped to see the Christian worldview factored into conversations about the development of AI.
Mr Tam said he hoped the ISCAST event could give Christians deeper understanding of AI, so they could dive into the surrounding questions with more confidence.
“AI is part of common grace, it’s part of what God’s blessed humanity with, and it’s a gift that we need to steward well,” Mr Tam said.
Speaker, the Reverend Dr Arthur Keefer said he hoped to address two of the main attitudes to AI among Christians: uncritical adoption, and absolute rejection. Dr Keefer is a pastor at Scots’ Church and honorary research associate at the University of Divinity.
An expert in wisdom literature, Dr Keefer will speak to Biblical wisdom’s place in an AI world.
He said the conversation about AI was a good chance for people to ask what humanity was about, and what God had to say about what it meant to be human.
When it came to wisdom, it meant asking “How am I taking responsibility for myself, and those around me, in terms of what we’re encountering with AI?”
Read more: Why the ‘Scientific and Spiritual Human’ was a milestone for me
For instance, for Dr Keefer as a teacher AI raised questions around responding to a student who had used ChatGPT to write an essay.
Dr Keefer said wisdom literature did contain elements of optimism, giving reason to think humans could have productive engagement with the world around them.
“It’s interesting what some of these books of the Bible emphasise, and what wisdom itself centres around,” Dr Keefer said.
“Wisdom has a lot to do with how we relate to ourselves … a lot of it is getting to grips with ourselves and being the kinds of people who are prepared or have learnt to interact well with the world around us.”
AI X Christianity: Gospel Wisdom for an AI World will also feature engineering academic Professor Neil Dodgson, Anglican minister the Reverend Dr Chris Mulherin.
The event will take place on 16 March at Scots’ Church, Melbourne.
More information is available at: bit.ly/AIXChristianity.
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