May Newsletter Article: AI and the believer

This article was written by Robert Shillaker and featured in our May 2026 newsletter.

HTC has grown alongside huge advances in technology. Remember the introduction of mobile phones? They were only for the few who could afford them and who were willing to lug around their accompanying suitcase. Now we are teaching classes through mobile devices as a matter of routine. The amazing advances in AI over the last decade, and the promise of AGI (artificial general intelligence), adds a remarkable slant to the impact of technology. A technology has arrived that can closely mimic human activities and, through machine learning, makes decisions based on principles that it has developed for itself and that are hidden from its developers and users. ⁽¹⁾

It is often assumed that technology is ethically neutral; it is just used or abused by humans. The printing press, or the internet, can be used to encourage and educate, or to divide and damage. ⁽²⁾ However, technology changes and moulds us as users. I was amazed to see the real anxiety caused by removing phones from participants on a youth weekend. It is not, however, just younger folk who are affected by their technological environment.

Let me highlight just two areas where interaction with technology may have hidden implications for our expectations and behaviour. Firstly, it offers us immediate and easy control of our lives, with access to information and goods on demand 24/7. Secondly, because it can be so human-like, it has huge potential to form our character and personality. Recently, I listened to a podcast where the presenter mocked himself for saying ‘please’ to an AI bot. ⁽³⁾ It is just an unfeeling machine, afterall; but I wonder if he was right.

Paul in Galatians 5 reminds believers that ‘[f]or freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’ (v.1). In context, this was aimed against the temptation to seek (false) security by depending on the law. In a technologically advanced culture, there is a similar simplistic temptation to rely on new technology for our daily reassurance. Paul goes on to explain how to live this freedom through ‘walking by the Spirit’ (vv. 16, 25). This leads to features of this personal lifestyle: ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’ (v. 22).

How does our interaction with the 24/7 culture impact on our peace, patience and self-control? When we are interacting with AI that is increasingly human-like, how do we exercise our kindness and goodness, especially when we consider that AI is learning from us? Paul’s guidance applies: ‘do not use your [Christ-procured] freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another’ (v. 13b).
 
Robert Shillaker
Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology
Programme Leader for BA(Hons) Theological Studies

¹ Susan Schneider, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind (Princeton University Press, 2021), p. 23.

² The claim of neutrality is debateable. For example, the technology we enjoy is produced by organisations that are explicitly trying to make money from its users. It is very difficult to avoid AI now in most modern software and search engines. This is not simply because it is better than what went before, but because the financial investments of companies require a return. Putting it this starkly makes us realise that even a material object can have embodied design values, such as modifying our behaviour for economic reasons.

³ Nick Skytland and Preston Sprinkle, ‘Is Artificial Intelligence Good, Bad, or Neutral?’, Theology in the Raw, 8 March 2026 <https://theologyintheraw.com/podcast/is-artificial-intelligence-good-bad-or-neutral-nick-skytland/> [accessed 11 March 2026]