An ad popped up on Facebook the other day from Jasper.ai (the “ai” standing for artificial intelligence). It said, “Marketers: This new AI will write high quality blog posts for you in seconds.”
Just think: non-human, impersonal digital equipment generating blog posts—and high quality ones at that! At Jasper’s website they also say, “Create amazing love letters 10X faster with AI.” How about that—and just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Maybe you’ve already moved past the shock of encountering AI services—like voice-activated Siri on your iPhone. But when I saw the ad from Jasper, it jolted me. In my mind, a blog post involves a thinking person articulating a concern or case or appeal, etc.; blogging is not the domain of robots.
We already live in a digital age bombarding us with limitless text and visual content. But now we must get used to ever more words and images being manufactured impersonally.
Which, of course, will leave us wondering—and increasingly so as the future unfolds: “Is there actually a human mind behind this message, or that blog post or email or letter or memo? Or am I actually in conversation with no one?”
Don’t get me wrong. I can see many positive uses for digital tools that allow us to work with text (e.g., search functions). But I worry that blurring the line between original writing by a breathing human and algorithm-driven AI text will make us all the more cynical about the value of all kinds of discourse: “Who’s really talking, is anyone speaking, who can be trusted, what is truth?”
And so, in today’s digital wild west, make sure to cling to, and be fed by, the Word of God: Scripture is our secure foundation in a chaotic world. And also, spread the message of hope (1 Peter 3:15)—hope for life, true life—to neighbors who are reeling with uncertainty and anxiety in this distressing cultural moment.
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