February 12, 2023 – Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Chatbot in the Pulpit
(or, A.I., A.I., Oh!)
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
“My dear friends, today I want to remind you of the immense love that God has for each and every one of us. In John 3.16, it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse reminds us that God’s love for us is so great that He was willing to send His only Son to die for our sins, so that we may have eternal life with Him. This is a love that is beyond our human comprehension, a love that is boundless and eternal. But it’s not just in the sacrifice of His Son that we see God’s love for us. We see it in the beauty of nature, in the laughter of a child, in the warmth of the sun on our faces. We see it in the kindness of strangers, in the love of a friend, in the comfort of a hug. God’s love is all around us, if we only take the time to look for it. And even when we can’t see it, even when we feel lost and alone, God’s love is still there, holding us close, never letting us go. So today, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on the love that God has for you. Remember that you are loved and cherished, not just by God, but by the people around you. And let that love fill you heart and guide your actions, so that you may share God’s love with others.”
Those of you who have suffered through/listened to my sermons for the past five and a half years may be saying to yourselves, “Well, that’s all very nice, but somehow it doesn’t sound quite like Alan.” And you would be absolutely correct: I did not write a word of that. (If anything the masculine pronouns for God should have given it away.). Ever since I read about ChatGPT shortly after it launched last November – the phrase is shorthand for chatbot generative pretrained transformer, basically a robot that an write creatively – ever since I read about it, I have been wondering what it might be like to have it write my sermons for me. A chatbot can create entire paragraphs and pages and academic papers and school assignments and yes, sermons, in seconds, all with just a short question or prompt, It is an A.I., an artificial intelligence device that can and will answer, at whatever length you desire, any question you ask. It is very difficult to tell from a chatbot response whether you’re engaging with a computer or a real person. And it is a development that has companies like Google and Wikipedia in its cross-hairs, because right now if you Google something you get a handful of links, some useful, many not; or if you visit Wikipedia, you find information collected by human beings which may or may not be entirely accurate. If you visit ChatGPT’s web site, a computer will create something out of nothing from your mere request.
The paragraph I began with a moment ago was a response to the prompt, “Write a sermon about how much God loves us.” And as you heard, not only did it know to cite chapter and verse of John 3.16, it “spoke” not just about the love of God, but the presence of God in nature and in other human beings. It is as though my laptop ate from the tree of knowledge that was off-limits to the first human beings.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
The first man and first woman were seduced by the tempter into tasting knowledge that was forbidden to them. I would wonder how many people are tempted to let artificial intelligence produce an apple for them.
You’ve probably already read or heard about schools that are taking measures to prevent students from turning in papers written by ChaptGPT. After all, if you’re studying Shakespeare, all you need to do is ask the bot to write a paper about MacBeth’s inner demons, then sit back and let the computer do the rest. Or on a Saturday night I could log on to the web site and enter the prompt, “Write a sermon about Chatbots writing sermons.” And how would you know if I did? And how do you know I did not?
Actually, it is very unlikely that I will ever ask a computer to write my sermon for me. In the first place, every time I try to access the ChatGPT web page, I get a message that reads, “This site is currently at capacity,” and then it composes a cute little limerick before it signs off. But just to show you how hopelessly analogue I remain, it was right at this point in my sermon writing that I wanted to look up the broader context of the passage I read from Acts 7, so I got up from the kitchen table where I was working, walked into my little office at home, grabbed my Bible, and it wasn’t until I was halfway back to the kitchen that I remembered if I wanted to read Acts 7, I could simply open up my browser on the computer I was using to write my sermon, and go to one of the several online Bibles I have bookmarked. So no, you probably won’t be hearing a sermon from me created by artificial intelligence.
Stephen did not have a computer to write his sermons for him, but it might have been better for him if he did. As my analogue Bible reminded me, in the seventh chapter of Acts Stephen preached what we would call a real fire and brimstone sermon whose conclusion we heard this morning. Stephen reminded his hearers of the faithlessness of previous generations of Israel, how they rebelled against Moses and the prophets and dishonored God in a variety of ways through their long history, and he concluded his sermon by including his hearers, among them the synagogue elders, scribes and Council, whom he lumped in with the history of faithless Israel: “You stiff-necked people,” Stephen said to them, “uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.” And, enraged by Stephen’s accusation, they seized him and put him to death. Not even a chatbot could have saved him at that point.
And I mean that literally. Early in its development, artificial intelligence developed a nasty personality. In 2020, a chatbot named Replika advised an Italian journalist to commit a murder. A colleague, dubious that a computer would give such a command, followed up and it told him to go kill himself. A few years before, an early Microsoft chatbot was engaged in a lengthy dialogue with a user when it began to launch into a series of racist and misogynistic statements that forced the company to take it offline. Left to their own, it appears, some artificial intelligence programs will go to some rather dark places. “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” The elders, the scribes and the Council did not like what they were hearing from Stephen, and he paid the price.
David Kaden is Senior Minister at First Congregational UCC in Ithaca, NY. David holds a PhD from University of Toronto and has taught at Cornell and St Olaf College. David recently wrote a thoughtful reflection on Chatbot and A.I for the UCC, and it was he who provided the example I began with this morning. Kaden says that the latest models, ChatGPT in particular, have been specifically trained not to give toxic and harmful responses, precisely because so many previous iterations devolved into sexism, racism and bigotry. Not unlike the human race that designed them, I might add.
So after he asked the chatbot to write a sermon and got the response we heard, Kaden asked it to write a specifically UCC-styled sermon and sure enough, here is what it came up with in seconds:
“My dear friends… as a United Church of Christ congregation, we believe that God’s love is for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or any other aspect of their identity. We believe that all people are created in the image of God and are worthy of love and respect. In Matthew 22.39, Jesus teaches us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself…’ So today I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on the ways in which you can make the church a more welcoming and inclusive place for all people. Remember that all are welcome in the house of God, and let us strive to make that a reality in our church community.”
Dang, I wish I had written that. Come to think of it, I probably have, at some point in my career.
But what artificial intelligence lacks is personality. Or more to the point, it lacks my personality. I could read you an entire sermon written by a computer, and as good and natural and inspiring as it might sound, after a few minutes you would know it wasn’t my voice; it would have an anodyne feel to it, it could easily find a home in any mainline church – and I have no doubt it could write a conservative evangelical sermon as quickly and easily as it spit out the UCC one – but it wouldn’t have the quirks – or the individual style – I and most of my colleagues have developed over our careers. And maybe that’s a good thing.
But don’t take it from me. Kaden asked the chatbot why chatbots should not write sermons. Here is part of its reply:
“There are a few reasons why A.I. may not be the best choice for writing sermons. First, AI lacks the personal touch and human connection that is often important in a sermon. A sermon is often a reflection of the pastor’s personal beliefs, experiences and relationship with God, which an AI model may not be able to replicate. Additionally, the ability to connect with the congregation and relate to their personal experiences is crucial in preaching, which AI currently lacks. Second, AI may lack the theological and biblical knowledge required to write a meaningful sermon. Sermons often require a deep understanding of religious texts and teachings, as well as the ability to interpret and apply them in a way that is relevant to the congregation. Finally, AI is not capable of understanding the nuances of the human experience, emotions, and the context of the community. The ability to understand these nuances and to tailor the message accordingly is important in preaching.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself. And thanks to ChatGPT, I didn’t have to!