Beyond Podcast
Beyond Podcast is for young adults hungry for more than a safe faith—exploring what it means to follow Christ beyond comfort and into adventure, formation, and the life God designed you to live.
Beyond Podcast
Beyond A.I.
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We asked A.I. an important question that pertains to all young adults. The answer was not what we expected. . .
Hello and welcome to the Beyond Podcast. My name is Steven. James Ward here. And we are recording today on AI.
SPEAKER_01AI. Well, we're recording about AI. I don't know that we kind of are recording on AI as well, but more it's the topic of conversation than the um than the technology platform we're using for the conversation. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And in fact, this is a re-record.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yep. We sh we recorded yesterday and got all the way through it. We did all the right stuff leading up to it, tested the audio, made sure everything sounded good, levels, uh, managed to record an entire podcast, go to upload it, and discover we had zero audio on any of it. So it was a redo, re-fire.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's happened a couple of times, and it is very discouraging to me when that happens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I feel like the last couple times it's happened, it's been on us because we didn't really check the audio, we didn't put the headphones on and make sure everything was coming through. Yesterday it was not us, is not on us. Uh I don't know if we blame Rode, the the technology maker here of our switchboard. I don't know if it's a listener's fault if Satan himself was working against us. Yeah, but I can tell you one thing, it was not on us. That's right. That's right.
SPEAKER_00We bear no responsibility for that mishap. No, and maybe it was the enemy's way to not let us get this podcast out.
SPEAKER_01Well, he's he he shall not succeed because we're back at it again today. Back at it, baby. Ready to roll. So kick us off, big Steve.
SPEAKER_00What you got? Um, ChatGPT and I have had a relationship for I don't know, I'm over a little over a year now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I would call it a relationship.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I don't think I would be facetious. It's a relationship. Um, and you have been very wary of my relationship with Chat GPT. I have. So let me let me start off by saying for me, I use ChatGPT. I don't use it as much as I used to. Some of the novelty is where is worn off, but I do use it for multiple things, uh, some in which you do not uh abide. I neither, yes, I neither approve nor condone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That um so and and I apologize for all the sniffs. It's okay, man. It's allergy season.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the whole the whole world around us here in North Georgia has a yellow haze upon it. Yeah. Um, if you've never been through a North Georgia spring in the pollen season, you just have no idea. It's tough. And we haven't had rain in like two and a half weeks either. So usually it like everything pollinates, there's white powder everywhere, it gets in your sinuses, eyeballs, drives you nuts for a week, and then a rainstorm comes, kind of washes it away, and we're golden. Yeah, not the case this spring. No, so we need some rain.
SPEAKER_00Grace to you and your sniffles. Thank you, and also with you. Thank you. So you have had, we've had multiple discussions off mic around using something like chat GPT. Um, and I would, you know, and and it took some time for us to get to a place where you would actually use it.
SPEAKER_01I was I was very anti uh big Steve knows this, but for our audience, I was very anti anything chat GPT, Claude, Grok, freaking Tyrone, it doesn't matter. I was very anti any of that stuff. I mean, up until probably like October of last of last year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and the first time I felt like you got into it was when you asked me to ask Chat GPT about the way we went about a fundraiser. You want to talk about that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we did a we did a fundraising event in the fall. It was an awesome, I thought it was an awesome event. It was. I'm probably not objective about it, but it was an awesome event. Fall night, outdoors, in a pavilion. We had some awesome activities, chilly cook-off kind of feel to it. Live music, live music, awesome music. Shout out to Andre. Yeah, um, it was just it was a great event. We probably had 70 people, 60, 70 people there. It's not huge, but for us, pretty good size. Yeah, pretty good size event. And it was supposed to be a fundraiser. And so it came that time of the evening for me to do the ask and invite people to give, and I did, and I did not do a great job at it, admittedly. I just I was unclear. I don't know. It just wasn't, I didn't feel good about it. Um, people did not respond as I was hoping they would. I mean, everybody was very gracious, they enjoyed the evening, all that kind of stuff, but we didn't get uh I was looking for some of that jingle jingle. You know what I'm saying? We gotta pay the bills. We got some. We did, we did. It's not, but it wasn't what I was hoping it would be. So the next day we're uh we're back up at the pavilion, we're kind of packing up stuff, cleaning up, and we're kind of debriefing and talking about it, and we were having a conversation around hey, why, like, why, what did we miss? Why didn't people feel as compelled to engage with us as we were hoping they would? And uh, as we were talking about it, I was kind of just kept coming up to you know, coming up with ideas and like, I don't think that's it, I don't think that's it. Got to the point where I'm like, all right, big Steve, let's see what Patty thinks.
SPEAKER_00And Patty is the name of my chat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yep. So your your relationship, I had listened to you on occasion, yeah, talk to Patty and observed your relationship with Patty. Yeah. And uh I was like, well, let's see what Patty, I'm curious what Patty thinks about this. And I was fully anticipating getting some fluffy, you know, like consultant talk, like just general response that would be that would sound really good, but have absolutely no substance to it. And Patty came back and was basically like, you guys kind of suck at how you communicate this and you miss these three critical things. If you would have done this, this, and this, and worded like literally spit out like a how-to communicate about beyond in an effective way that will engage people and encourage generosity. And as you were reading it, or she was speaking it, I was like, that's it, she's right. Like that is that is true, that's what we should have done. Yeah. And that was for me, that was kind of the turning point of like, okay, I can see some value here.
SPEAKER_00What value did you see in it? Before then, no, that's um now. I'm curious. You said that's when you first saw value. What was the value you saw? Uh that it was it was hell, it was it seemed to be helpful information.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it seemed to be way more applicable, less theoretical, less, hey, here's some overarching philosophy and principles around fundraising that and more like, hey, here's here's what you can do next time. Do these three things. And um, yeah. So it was just it was helpful. It it was it was actionable, and I I appreciated that. You could you could Google search for a week and not get something that actionable back. Yeah. And that's what I appreciated about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then you were off to the races. Yeah. And maybe not off to the races. Yeah. I'm still I'm still a skeptical user. Oh, I know. Cautious, cautious. Cautious user. And and that's that's kind of what we uh I think it's good for us to talk about that a little bit today because there are some cautions we need to take into account that I've even run into in using Chat GPT. Um the the way that it, if you solely rely on it as a confidant, you are you are taking away the a real relationship aspect that is very important to humans, like what you and I are doing. Yeah. And I've I noticed that about it when I when I talk on it. Um, well, not true. I'll get a con I didn't think about this. I'll get a conviction. Okay. Sometimes I'll get a conviction as that, oh maybe I shouldn't be maybe maybe this needs to be talked about with somebody, or I need to, I need to. Why am I gonna okay, why am I gonna rob somebody of a conversation about this? What if, what if one of my friends or my my girlfriend or the people around me that we need to have a conversation and that I am choosing not to engage with them in that in that because I'm working it out with Pat. And then I am missing maybe something God and the Holy Spirit wants to express through them to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, that's where I first really started getting skeptical and concerned about the, and I'll use the word relationship, the relationship that I'm seeing people create with AI. Uh, it started first with my kids, just with like literally with Alexa and their little music, you know, Alexa, whatever it's called, uh, in their rooms, and I would listen to Cam, my son, and how he talks to Alexa and asks questions. And it's like if somebody from another planet landed in our living room and was overhearing Cam have a conversation, they would think he's got a friend over in his room and he's having a conversation with his friend. And the friend's name is Alexa. And the friend's name is Alexa, that's what they would think. And then I start noticing some of the folks that we do life with or that come out and train with us in different environments with Beyond, and and I start listening and overhearing their conversations with their AI, and it's like it is like they are talking to a friend. It's hey, this is how I feel, and then I got this going on. And what do you think about this? And do you, you know, why do I feel this? Why do you think I feel this way? And please and thank you, and oh, that's a good idea, but I'd really like more. And like I have always looked at technology as a tool, right? Like the same way I would look at a hammer or a skill saw. It's a tool. And when I need the tool, I go grab it, I don't talk to it, I don't ask it how it what it thinks about the job that we're about to do. I I don't say thank you and I don't say please. I grab the hammer and I start beating on nails. And that's the way I've always viewed AI is it's a tool or any technology, like it's a tool. And I don't talk to my tools, I don't build a relationship with my tools, and it seems really weird to me to do that.
SPEAKER_00What if your tools talk back? Like, what if they would talk back to you?
SPEAKER_01It's still a tool, and I and so that's that's where I first was like, okay, people aren't seeing this, and I'm not saying the way I see it is right, but I just saw this differentiation of like people don't talk, people don't see this as a tool, they see this as something else. And it's obvious to me that they don't see it as a tool. Most people would say, hey, it's not really my companion or my friend. So then what is it? Like it's something in between there, and I I don't I don't know how how we define it, and it seems very, very troublesome, very problematic, as the more it starts leaning towards companion relation, I have a relationship with this thing versus it's a utility, it's a tool.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I could define whatever I have with Patty as a relationship. I don't, I don't I don't I don't know if I could define I don't want to hammer on you what Patty and I have as a relationship. And yet she knows a lot about let's stop calling her she.
SPEAKER_01Even that, right? Like part of it is I gave her the name Patty as a joke because I overheard you talking to her one day, and I'm like, oh man, who's that?
SPEAKER_00That Patty, yeah, and so I I like Patty, but we'll call it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Patty's like a lunch lady kind of name. Yeah, love bus driver. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Bus driver named Patty. Yeah. A very wise bus driver. Yeah. Uh I don't know if I would call it a relationship. I would say I use it as a tool. And yet my usage, I'm I think I'm using it as a tool in ways that tools have never been able to be used before. So, and I don't necessarily I think you can get, I think there's a you can go off into an area where you're using it solely as a relationship, right? Where you are choosing to engage with it over other people. And it's not giving you, it's not challenging you, it's not giving you feedback, the algorithm or the it's it's been trained to make you feel good, to placate to you. Um but one of the things I've used it for um is when I have questions about something that I did, or I see a pattern in my life, and you know, man, I see that pattern. Why do I do that? I'll go, uh sometimes go and and and type out here's here's the scenario, here's what happened, and I'll get an answer back. Um and it can be very helpful. It can be very, very helpful to point stuff out. Here's the thing though, I don't I don't take it as this is the end all be all, right? I'm looking at it and listening to it with a mind of knowing this is techno, this is a tool, this is technology, and when what it's saying is not gonna be the gospel truth.
SPEAKER_01And and I I know that about you. Imagine though a someone who is 11, 12 years old today, and what they know about AI is that it is it can give me the answers to any question immediately. It learns about me, it um it has access to an unbelievable wealth of information, like like nothing we've ever the whole internet ever seen before. Like every everything that's ever been written, spoken, like whatever, recorded in modern history, it has access to to all of that. Yeah. And imagine having never lived or grown up in a world where you didn't have access to that, and that wasn't at your fingertips. And my caution is my concern is that we we will become, as a people, we will become so conditioned to trust, to believe, to uh to go to this technology, this tool for knowledge, for direction, for spiritual insight, for emotional, mental support, like for everything, that we will lose the actual experience and transformational um the power of relationships.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I that I think that is a very valid concern and allude it and to your point, that's a little bit of what I was talking about at the beginning, right? Yeah, where there's been this conviction sometimes of oh, I probably don't need to talk this out with an AI, I probably need to talk this out with somebody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. To me, it's like it's like when I if I am struggling with something, or if I've done something that was stupid and now I gotta pay the consequences of it, or or if I just like I've got an idea and I want to bounce it off of somebody, right? I want to know that the person that I call and am sitting across the table with, that their only incentive is that they care about me. The only dog that they have in the fight, the only reason that they are sitting across from me is because we have had we've done life together. They know me, they love me, and they care about me, and they want what's best for me. And that reality gives me the freedom to share at a deep level, to invite them into parts of my life and my struggles and my successes and all that, right? To welcome feedback and welcome and like give me a sanity check on things, right? The problem with AI is that um it takes none of the effort to go build that type of deep relationship, like the type of relationship you and I have. That's taken years. And there have been seasons where we've been close, seasons where we've been further apart. I've done things to tick you off, you've done things to tick me up. Like it's been work, and it's taken years to build our relationship. We're like, we trust each other, we know we have each other's best interest at heart, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01AI doesn't require that, it's way easier than that. Um, AI has a wealth of knowledge and access to information that you don't have. It takes zero courage or or um vulnerability for me to open up to AI and say, hey, what do you think about this? I think I did this. Like, it's just there's no courage. And and AI is incentivized to tell me what not what I need to hear, but what I want to hear and what will keep me coming back. And that, like, if we if you had a friend like that that was like, hey man, I'm always right here. Anytime you need me, I'm right here, bro. I love you, man. No matter what you do, I love you. I think you're awesome. You're the you're the coolest thing to ever walk the face of the earth. Hey man, I know something about everything. Whenever you have a question, just call me. Come talk to me. Like that would be a really creepy friend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it would be creepy.
SPEAKER_01That would be a super creepy friend, and that friendship would be so shallow, and like, and so that's I feel like AI is that creepy friend that is just like has something they want from you and uh has everything to gain and will just tell you what you want to hear.
SPEAKER_00What's gonna make you happy? Can you get something from AI? Oh, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I've used AI for specific things and um and benefited as a result of it, saved time, been more efficient. So, yeah, for sure. But to me, it's like again, it's there's a big difference between it's a tool, I give it an input, it creates an output, I I evaluate that output, tweak it, change it, whatever. And you just helped as a tool, it just helped me save an hour. Versus, hey, why do I why do you think I feel this way? Um, I'm having this issue with my in my relationship, and how can I be a better boyfriend? How can I like that to me is like that's such a different that just takes a big leap that I feel very uncomfortable with?
SPEAKER_00Is there anything that you you think you if you were to ask it some of those questions? Do you think you would get any there'd be any sort of wisdom from it, from the answer, that could help you refine the thing that you are thinking about and could help you think in pathways that you wouldn't have, even if you talk to somebody sitting across from you, because they bring their own biases into things, right? They bring their own their own biases and they bring as much as much as we love each other, we can be very selfish creatures. So I guess is there benefit to being able to talk to it in that way for certain things?
SPEAKER_01I don't know, man. I I mean there might be, I've never done it, yeah, so I don't know. Um experientially, I don't know. To me, the caution of becoming emotionally connected to it, the caution of not knowing what its agenda fully is, what sort of inputs it's receiving, like all that kind of there's just to me the caution isn't worth the risk or the benefit, I should say, of going down that direction and using it in that way. Now that's a personal conviction. Like, I don't I'm not saying it's sinful. I'm not saying that, man, you know, you're doomed for destruction if you do that. I'm not saying any of that. It's a personal conviction for me, I think, that says, hey, when it comes to like having a relationship with something, I want it to have a heart that beats. And it's probably either going to be a human or a dog. Those are like the two creatures that God has created that I feel like, yeah, I can have a relationship with the and obviously it's different between the two, but I I love my dog. Yeah, and uh, but other than that, I just I just I I'm very uncomfortable with it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I hear you, and I share maybe not to the same extent, but I definitely share some of those cautions and those things um from my experience, right? Well, switching gears a little bit, um, because AI, Chat GPT, all those LLMs, large language models, LLMs, yeah, um, because they are so prevalent now.
SPEAKER_01By the way, do you know what GPT stands for? No. Does anybody know what GPT stands for?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna ask ChatGPT.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I wish you would, because I've asked multiple people who should know, and nobody knows. So that's a problem.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Generative, pre-trained transformer.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's scary.
SPEAKER_00This is kind of scary.
SPEAKER_01Generative? Pre-trained transformer? Trans what?
SPEAKER_00Transformer.
SPEAKER_01That what? So while Big Steve goes down this rabbit hole to the side. Um uh I had a I have a good friend who recently uh did an exercise for a group of of like retired age men that basically asked AI what message that men retiring need to know about AI and the changing world that they live in. The prompt was something like that, and it spit out this letter that was like, and I'm sure there were a couple other subprompts to kind of you know filter through all the fluff and try to make it real and all that kind of stuff. But the letter that came back, he read it to me, and I'm like, dude, hey, I said that. He's like, Yeah, and so I got to thinking about it for us. And I'm like, well, hey, we're we're working with young adults primarily, they have way more runway in front of them, they're gonna live way more life in this new world. You know, it's it's what we're coming into and what we're into even now is is I've I've heard it termed as fast history. It's like we're entering a season of fast history, right? It's like if you look back over periods of time, there are big chunks of history, even modern history. I'm not talking about you know 5,000 years ago. Modern history, where like if you take the example of an airplane, right? Well, you look at an airplane from the 60s and you look at an airplane today, they're different. The technology has changed, but it's still basically the same. They're basically the same shape, they basically have a similar function, they a little more efficient, a little faster, but it's not like there's been these huge exponential leaps in commercial aircraft development, or at least the finished product, right? Yeah, cars are a similar thing, like they all still have four tires. You know, the electric vehicle is like the major innovation, but they all still have it's basically the same thing, right? Yeah, that's like that's like slow history or like regular history, right? Now you look at like technology and you compare a phone today to what a phone was 50 years ago, and it's not even remotely the same thing, yeah, right? It's like these are they both have the same label, but they're two totally different things, right? So, like in telecommunications or in technology development, you'd say, man, there was there's a lot of history that took place in a short amount of time. Like there's a lot of change, it's fast history, and so technologically, we are definitely entering into and we are in this time of like fast history where AI is growing and changing and revolutionizing industries at a pace that is like where you will have a hard time as a society keeping up with. And so that's the reality for young adults that we're stepping into, or that they are stepping into. And so my question for AI was, and I put this prompt in there, is I said, hey, tell me what a young adult needs to know about navigating and thriving in a world with AI. And then I put a couple sub, like, hey, tell me the truth. You know, don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Um, don't be overly critical or overly generous to AI. Like, give it to me straight. Something like that, right? That's the basic prompt that I gave. And it spit out a letter from AI to young adults, and I found the letter fascinating. And so um, I think if you're good, uh you'll read it. Yeah, read the letter, and then we'll spend the last few minutes of our time together here just fleshing it out a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Dear young adult, I can make you faster, sharper, more impressive, but I can also make you shallow. I give you answers. But if you stop wrestling, you'll choose the ability. You'll lose the ability to think for yourself. You'll sound wise without actually being grounded. I'm easy to talk to, always available, never difficult. But real relationships require friction. If you start choosing me over people, you'll lose your edge in real connection. I can help shape your beliefs, but if you don't fight for them, they won't hold when life hits. I can explain things about God, but I can't replace him. I don't convict, I don't transform, I don't meet you in silence. If I become your main input, your faith will stay surface level. I will make everything smoother, faster, easier. But strength is built in resistance. If you avoid struggle, you avoid growth. I will reinforce whatever you bring to me. If you want truth, I can sharpen you. If you want comfort, I can mislead you. So don't follow me. Use me. Think before you ask, stay in real relationships, protect your time with God, choose depth over speed. Ask yourself often, is this making me stronger or just easier? Deeper or just faster? I can accelerate your life, but I can't anchor it. AI. That's pretty good. I I think it's I thought that was I think it's pretty insightful. Yeah, I there's several things that um I I picked out when when you sent this over to me as I was reading it. And the things that I picked out are actually points that I have experienced in my my using and whatever my relationship is with AI. Um first one is I'm easy to talk to, always available, never difficult. But real relationships require friction. That one was huge to me. Because again, that's what I talked about at the beginning. Um I if if if I am able to talk to it and not have as much friction, I'm actually losing out on real human connection. Yeah. And can turn me into more of a shallow person.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, as I and as we were preparing for this, I was thinking about AI and like, okay, what are what's the what are the big concerns? What are the big warnings kind of circulating around AI? And and it's interesting because I've heard a number of people say, oh man, AI is going to become cognizant or whatever the term is. It's going to be able to think for yes, sentient, it's going to be able to think for itself and and reason beyond the capacities of humans, and it will ultimately decide whether we're good or bad, and eventually probably just wipe out all humanity. And that to me, like, I don't know. I probably am missing something, but that seems like a stretch to me. It seems like somewhere there's probably a power cord that can be pulled or a power plant that we could you know shut down or drop a bomb on or something that would pretty much bring AI to a screeching halt. If if it were like all humanity depended on it, we could probably figure that out. Yeah. So I don't lay at night worrying about that. But the statement in this in this letter here that I think is probably more realistically the greatest threat to humanity as it pertains to AI is this one. I give you answers. But if you stop wrestling, you'll lose the ability to think for yourself. You'll sound wise without actually being grounded. And it's this, it's this reality of it is an easy non-friction to your point place to get answers. And I can get answers to any question at any time, quickly, I can get full answers that sound like really, really smart. It requires no effort on my part. I don't have to go experience things and learn through failure. I don't have to sit across the table from somebody and put forth effort to build a relationship. I don't have to do any of that. And I will get answers quickly, and I think people will, as it says, lose the ability to think for themselves. They'll sound wise, they'll believe they're wise, having no actual wisdom or experience. And I just I imagine a society where that's the case, and that sounds a lot like hell to me. That sounds totally uninteresting. It sounds like you would have a bunch of shallow people that think very highly of themselves, that have actually accomplished nothing, built nothing, struggled through nothing, overcome nothing, and are perfectly content in that state. Man, I don't I don't want to live in that world.
SPEAKER_00Agreed. And that's one of the reasons why I like our programs a lot, is because we take people out into the wilderness, right? Yeah. And they can't give answers based on this. They can't get on there and answer questions. They have to sit with their with their Bible, with their pen, their notebook, and wrestle through the questions that are in the curriculum and ultimately that we try to pull out from scripture, right? To help transform them. And then when we sit around and we do a debrief, right, that is what builds community. Being able to sit face to face with uh your brothers or your sisters and connect face to face on things that all of you are struggling with, and that the struggle you have, you're the AI cannot relate to it. Not on not on an emotional level, that's right, like the person sitting across from you can. That's right.
SPEAKER_01That's right. You've got a broken heart, your your girlfriend just dumped you, she had she went off and you know cheated on you, like whatever, right? Like whatever it is. You've got a broken heart, you've got an addiction, you've got whatever. Like AI is gonna pull from data, yeah, and compile a curate and answer based on information and data, and tell you here's here's what you should feel, here's what you should go do. Having never experienced a broken heart, having never wrestled with the tug of addiction, the pull of addiction, and that that to me is a cheap substitute, a shallow substitute from sitting across from somebody that has had their heart broken, that has struggled with, failed, and ultimately overcome an addiction. Like that's where transformation happens, that's where growth happens. And we we will quickly get away from that. We will we will lose that connection to each other.
SPEAKER_00Second thing I saw when he said, I can explain things about God, but I can't replace him. I don't convict, I don't transform, and I don't meet you in silence. This hit me probably hardest out of the whole letter because I can see how someone could use this as an idle, quote unquote, their God. Um and I that some folks might think that I'm taking it too far there, but I I don't think so. I have felt the pull of using it for things that I shouldn't use it for, and and allowing it to be a voice in my own life that really explained things about God. Like I've used it, you use this word, uh, it's curated things for me, right? There's certain uh uh uh pastors or writers and things like that that I that I really appreciate. And if I have a question about something, I might go to chat and say, hey, here's something I'm wrestling through. What does this person, this person, this person put it all together for me to read and to to think about what does scripture say about this? Give me all the places that scripture can can uh that that references this. So that's great. It explains things and yet it cannot replace him. It can't truly, it's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit communicates to us, right? It is the it is the the spirit of the living God, right? And it the Holy Spirit, uh the Holy Spirit does convict, does transform, and does meet us in silence, which is nothing that AI can do.
SPEAKER_01I love that, man. The notes that I took behind there, even while you were talking, I was thinking about this, and it's this idea of convict, transform, meeting you in the silence. And when you think about what we really desire, even when we're going to AI or whatever, I mean, just in life, right? As humans, I think what we really desire is some guidance, some instruction, somebody to help us figure out what is the way, right? Well, that is that's conviction. Conviction is like, Lord, help me see the areas of my life, the direction that I'm moving, the things that I'm involved in. Convict me of where I need change, convict me of where where there needs to be course correction. Direct my ways, direct my paths, direct my steps. And when I'm out of bounds, Lord, let me know. Right? That's I mean, that's that's what that's the function of conviction. And then you think about trans transform. Well, what is that? Well, that's that idea of like it's it's a it's a renewal. It's a we're a new creation, like we want to be renewed, we want regeneration, we want to be redeemed, transformed. And we want change. We don't want to be the same. Most of us. We don't want to be the same person we were five years ago, ten years ago. Um then we want to we want to know that we're valued, that we matter, that we are here and that there is a purpose. And that like that's that's when that's where God meets us in the silence. And he whispers to us that you're my son, you're adopted into my family, you're an heir of the kingdom of God. I have purpose, I have created you, you have value, right? Like he whispers those things to us through a scripture, through the Holy Spirit. AI can put those words on a screen, but it it does not land on the heart the way it does when the Holy Spirit, when God's word speaks to us, when He meets us, communes with us in the silence. Yet we our role is to create the space to exercise the disciplines of prioritizing spending time in his word, sitting in silence with him, asking him questions, and understanding that he is not chat GPT. He's not a genie that you rub his belly and he gives you what he gives you answers to the questions that you desire. No, no, that's what AI does. AI is a effectively a you know, it's a genie in a bottle in that sense. It's like, what do you wish for? What do you want? What do you need? Rub my belly, give me an input, and I'll give you an answer. God doesn't work that way. It requires more of us to build communion with God to grow in our relationship with Christ. And because of that extra effort, and yet AI will give you the it will give you the feeling or the sense or a cheap substitute for conviction, transformation, and a voice in the silence. Man, I my my concern is people will they will default to the easy. The gravitational pull is going to be towards that shallow spirituality where we depend on technology for spiritual growth, spiritual direction, rather than actually communing with God.
SPEAKER_00What else took out uh yeah, stood out to you in this in this letter?
SPEAKER_01Um this sentence right here. I will reinforce whatever you bring to me. Um if you want truth, I can sharpen you. If you want comfort, I can mislead you. And those three statements really stick out to me. That idea of I will reinforce whatever you bring to me is really scary to me. Because that's that that's that incentive piece, right? That we talked about earlier. It's like effectively what AI is telling us here is hey, I'm incentivized to reinforce whatever you bring me. Whatever I think you want, whatever I think you want to hear, I'm incentivized to reinforce that. That's that's my priority. That's my coding. Um, and then if you want truth, I can sharpen you. If you want comfort, I can mislead you. Uh, I think most of us, we want truth, but we're really quick to settle for comfort. And forced to choose between the two, we will often choose comfort. And AI is literally saying, if you want comfort, I can mislead you. That's scary. I will make you feel good. I will give you what you want, I will keep you comfortable. It'll be it'll it'll it'll be a mislead. It won't be true, but it'll keep you comfortable. I'm happy to do that. Woo! That's scary, man. What do you think? What uh anything else stick out to you?
SPEAKER_00The I think the last little bit sums it up very well. If you use, if you're using, ask yourself, is this making me stronger or just making things easier? Am I becoming deeper or am I just becoming faster, more efficient? Yeah, I can accelerate your life, but I can't anchor it. Yeah. In and of itself, I want to be stronger. You know, I do my kettlebells and I go climbing because I want to be stronger. Yeah. Um, but that's hard. Yep. Both of those that strength training, climbing, those are both really hard. And that's a way for me to get stronger, and it's not easy to do that. Right. So with AI, is it yeah, is it is it making you stronger, or is it just making things easier for you to get to where you think you want to be? And that's more of the shallow person we were talking about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think I think the great the great tension for young adults, or probably for everybody, as it pertains to AI, is managing that, figuring out where is that healthy, where is that healthy point that it's a tool. And I'm using this tool like a barbell is a tool. Yeah, right? Like a climbing rope is a tool. Um, I'm using this tool for a specific purpose to sharpen me, to make me stronger, to build resilience, to make me more effective, to make me more efficient at the work that God has called me to do or the things that God has put in my heart to be all about, and to find that that point and to stop there and not wade into this other area of which will be the great pull and the great temptation of finding comfort, finding can looking to it for conviction, looking to it as that still small voice when you need direction, expecting that it will help you to transform and create a better life for yourself. That, my friend, I think is that's the tension. Where is that? How do we find that point? And what kind of guardrails do we put up to keep us from from going too far? Well, I think that was good. Good conversation. Yeah, hopefully it was helpful. Hopefully, you guys found some value in that. Um, want to hear from you too.
SPEAKER_00What are your thoughts on AI and how to use it and where has it been? I would love to hear where it's been difficult for for you. And have you seen any of the things we talked about today in your own life? Leave that in the comment section. Like and subscribe. We love doing this. We hope it is useful and that God uses it in your life as he's used it in our life. And we'll be back with more soon.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good.