The following article is a part of the “Letters to…” series written by the 2023-2024 SOLA Writing Cohort, composed of college students and recent grads receiving mentorship to grow in their ability to express their faith through writing. The cohort members were given various prompts with the challenge to write an open letter to a specific recipient but one that would encourage and challenge a broader Christian audience. The prompt of this article is “Writing a Letter to a Person or Group You Disagree With On a Major Issue.”
More than a year after its launch, ChatGPT―one of the most advanced artificial intelligence chatbots to date―continues to provoke discussion. As a college student, my peers and professors are asking questions like, “How do we prevent the use of A.I. in academic dishonesty?” or “How can ChatGPT expedite tasks such as finding research sources?” Future developments in the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT will surely spawn countless more possibilities.
For Christians, however, the question must not only be how far we can push A.I. nor merely how ChatGPT can be adapted to our needs. Our first and primary question is whether ChatGPT―and other LLMs like it―enable us to fulfill the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:36-39).
This is no easy question to answer. Thoughtful Christians weighing the benefits and dangers of ChatGPT and other LLMs have written much in the past year, from wisdom for church ministries to warnings about A.I. girlfriends and idolatry.
But I want to address Christians who have a casual relationship with ChatGPT―Christians like you, perhaps, who might not have any grand ambitions beyond maximizing the efficiency of drafting emails or curating search results. No big deal, right?
However, as someone who has chosen not to use ChatGPT, I want to challenge you to consider how such a technology can inadvertently weaken your love for God and for others.
Technology and Temptation
A common argument in favor of ChatGPT compares it to revolutionary technologies such as the printing press or the internet. Just as the printing press accelerated literacy and access to the English Bible, and just as the internet democratized information, ChatGPT is an exciting innovation for the common good. You might even be hoping it will be used to spread the gospel in new and creative ways.
I sympathize with you in your desire to use technology redemptively. As Christians who believe in a good and sovereign God, we should not overreact with fear, alarm, or suspicion. Technology itself is not inherently good or bad. It is a tool.
At the same time, not all technology is equally redeemable. Take, for example, social media. Even though social media is not evil in itself, it’s not entirely neutral either. An advisory from the U.S. surgeon general earlier this year pointed out that poor mental health―symptoms of depression and anxiety―is correlated with adolescent social media use.
Moreover, social media brings a host of temptations to sin, from envying others’ curated lives on Instagram to venting unrighteous anger in a tweetstorm. Reckoning with social media teaches us that technology can influence us in ways we neither expect nor desire.
In contrast, the printing press could only print what had already been written by people. It could not take an active role in the creation and spreading of harmful material such as propaganda or misinformation. Social media, on the other hand, is a flexible interface that adapts to user preferences through algorithms designed to entice and addict. It can create and curate content. The danger is built into the technology itself.
Like social media, ChatGPT responds to its users and can even generate its own content, and as a result, like social media, has the ability to tempt you to sin. If you use ChatGPT, I’m not condemning you―just as I would not tell a social media user that they must quit.
But I am asking you to consider not only the ways in which ChatGPT benefits you but also the ways in which it tempts you. Are you tempted to compromise your academic honesty or take shortcuts on work you should be doing yourself? Are you tempted to go to ChatGPT for counsel that should instead come from a trusted brother or sister in Christ? Are you tempted to rely on ChatGPT for written communication with those whom you are called to love? Prayerfully consider your heart.
Technology and Thinking
You may determine to the best of your ability that ChatGPT is not a major temptation for you to sin. Yet I urge you to also consider a more subtle effect: how it changes the way you think.
In a way, this is nothing new. We have already seen and likely experienced how electronics are making it harder and harder to pay attention. My friends and I, who reached adolescence as smartphones and social media became ubiquitous, often talk about how we used to love books as children but, sometime during middle school, stopped reading for pleasure.
I suspect at least part of the shift occurred because we all became surrounded by screens and thus found it more agonizing than relaxing to sit and stare at the unresponsive page of a printed book. Reading requires sustained attention, focus, and engagement, but smartphones and social media do not reward slow, continuous thought.
If we go back to the Great Commandment―to love God and love others―we will find that it is hard to obey either without deep thinking. You are to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). What does that mean? Scripture tells us that the blessed man “meditates day and night” on God’s law (Ps. 1:2). The works of the Lord are “studied by all who delight in them” (Ps. 111:2). We are to meditate and study―to engage our minds rigorously and diligently. We are to spend time and energy thinking deeply and effortfully about God and his Word.
And when it comes to loving our neighbors, God commands us to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Heb. 10:24) and to “give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (Rom. 12:17). That is, we can only love one another to the extent that we think wisely about how to best care for and serve others. Genuine love requires thought.
This is the main reason why I am worried about ChatGPT. I know it’s possible for many people to use it without being tempted to sin, but it is much harder to guard against the deterioration of your ability to spend time in sustained thought. ChatGPT’s skill at responding to questions, compiling information, and presenting neat answers is certainly convenient, but could such a convenience condition your brain to expect only quick, concise solutions? Could ChatGPT relieve the difficulties of learning, but at the cost of depriving you of productive struggle?
I can see wise users of ChatGPT finding freedom from rote tasks that distract them from what matters more. Yet I can also see ChatGPT promoting a kind of laziness that balks at the effort needed to think deeply, even uncomfortably, for a long period of time. I’m wondering if our ability to meditate and study truth will be seriously challenged by the allure of quick, digestible information packaged nicely by ChatGPT. I’m wondering if our willingness to consider and give thought to loving complex human beings will be replaced by the expectation that others will be as straightforward and simple as an LLM.
Do I know this will happen for sure? No―but it’s worth a thought.
Questions Worth Asking
ChatGPT users, I’ve asked you many questions in this letter without single, clear answers. Many answers will vary from person to person; others are lacking because we simply don’t have enough information to say. What I can offer are the thoughts of a Christian who has chosen not to use ChatGPT, at least for the time being, because of the concerns I discussed here.
If you decide to start or continue using ChatGPT, I ask you to make this decision carefully and intentionally. As the use of ChatGPT and other LLMs seem destined for mainstream adoption, my hope and prayer is that Christian users will be shaped by thoughtfulness and humility toward the questions that matter.
These are questions that a machine cannot answer for you, questions that only you, in Christ, can begin to answer: How can using ChatGPT make me more kind, more gentle, more compassionate, more gracious? How can I use it to love the truth and seek wisdom? How can it aid my growth in knowing God and his Word? In short, how can using ChatGPT help me to love God and to love others?