Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
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NASHVILLE (BP) – Less than two years ago, AI struggled to do basic math. Now, top engineers are handing off most of their coding to it. AI chatbots are creating themselves. They even have their own social network.
Its capability to upend economics, politics, culture – basically reality – approaches hyperbole. By all indications, AI is going to outpace the Internet itself in reshaping the world.
Southern Baptist entities are already utilizing AI in various levels of work. Leadership has ratified guidelines for its usage; others are in the process. At least one entity has outright banned the use of one AI platform.
AI is here, and it is already changing things.
Souls, not algorithms
“I look at AI as a tool, just like I look at a pen or a pencil or a computer as a tool. They can be used for good, or they can be used for evil. And that’s a choice we have to make.”
Don Barger serves as the International Mission Board’s director of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence. He spoke with Baptist Press from Thailand on the use of AI within the missions agency.
The chief concern with AI is that it will replace human interaction. This is one Barger shares, and that he has actively pushed back against. A group that brought him on as a consultant had an idea to use AI as a primary counselor for missions work in the Middle East.
“I was fundamentally opposed to it,” said Barger. “I wrote them a lot of my concerns. I see that as soul care. I don’t know if an algorithm could ever do soul care. Souls care for other souls, not algorithms.”
That said, he is “super positive” about AI’s potential for evangelism, with limits.
FaithBot is an early tool developed by the IMB. It’s a trained chatbot that responds from an evangelical, Baptist background with a Scriptural worldview.
Digital engagement, a key component of evangelism nowadays, includes hateful responses and spam. That piles up when you get 75,000 messages a year. FaithBot began as an AI triage system to weed through messages and get to those exploring Christianity.
Barger, a professor at William Carey University, also sees his students acknowledging AI’s looming impact on their futures.
“They’re realizing what older people are just kind of blind to,” he said. “Within the next couple of years, the job market is going to change tremendously. They’re working, they’re getting degrees, they’re spending money and their jobs are probably not going to be there when they graduate.”
GuideStone Financial Resources joins other entities in utilizing CoPilot, which is built into Microsoft’s operations ecosystem. Safeguards are in line with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and HIPPA Security Rule standards.
“At GuideStone, our approach to artificial intelligence follows the same priorities that guide all of our work: serving churches, ministries and ministry-minded individuals with integrity, heart and skill,” said President and CEO Hance Dilbeck. “We use AI to help our people spend more time on what matters most – supporting those we serve – by taking on some routine tasks that can slow work down.
“As AI develops, our focus remains steady: use these tools to enhance the quality of service we provide, without losing the relationships at the heart of our mission. AI gives our teams more space to invest in those relationships with the attention they deserve.”
Something Big is Happening
Last week, a post titled “Something is Happening” shook the Internet, comparing now with February 2020. Back then, the world was aware of, but sorely underestimating the way COVID-19 was going to upend lives and change realities. Those who listened early and made the adjustments benefited from those precautions.
The pandemic’s effects weren’t permanent. The same can’t be said for AI. The discussion is really about holding onto the parts of life dependent on human interaction, like ministry.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission was way ahead of the conversation. Back in 2019, the entity released an evangelical statement of principles to “equip the church to proactively engage the field of AI.”
“In light of existential questions posed anew by the emergent technology of artificial intelligence (AI), we affirm that God has given us wisdom to approach these issues in light of Scripture and the gospel message,” it read. “Christians must not fear the future or any technological development because we know that God is, above all, sovereign over history, and that nothing will ever supplant the image of God in which human beings are created. We recognize that AI will allow us to achieve unprecedented possibilities, while acknowledging the potential risks posed by AI if used without wisdom and care.”
According to a search on its site, the ERLC has produced 48 pieces that address AI and its technological impact. Its most recent guide speaks to Christians navigating a world in which AI has seemingly established an influence. It is also direct in calling AI a tool that isn’t “theologically or morally neutral; it is formative, shaping our behaviors and values.”
“We are discipled by our tools,” it adds, “which conform us to the patterns of this world.”
Those warnings cluster around situations where human-to-human interaction, or a pastor working through a sermon, is taking place. AI can be beneficial, the guide says, in spaces such as church administration, language translation and sermon research … after “the hard work of exegesis and research.”
Seminary protocols
A 2023 resolution adopted at the New Orleans SBC Annual Meeting pointed to the ERLC’s 2019 statement and “[acknowledged] the powerful nature of AI and other emerging technologies, desiring to engage them from a place of eschatological hope rather than uncritical embrace or fearful rejection.”
That sentiment can be found in the responses BP received from Southern Baptist seminaries. Each is different, though every one is using AI in some regard, every one has drawn lines to its usage and none have banned it outright.
Stating its commitment to “the formation of minds and souls and the cultivation of knowledge, learning, and reflection,” Southern Seminary nonetheless offered that, “Technologies such as [A.I.] present a challenge to our intellectual integrity and Christian faithfulness.” Individual professors are responsible for establishing parameters of acceptable usage by students. A “clear distinction” must be kept between work done by people made in God’s image and that of artificial intelligence.
Three schools – Midwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern – acknowledged the use of CoPilot for institutional tasks. Southwestern, Gateway and Southeastern submitted formal documents outlining AI guidelines.
Southeastern’s IT department uses paid Claude accounts. But in a section on AI Vendor Evaluation, the seminary states that vendors “must provide clear information about their data management practices,” which includes sticking to protecting data and “ethical AI use guidelines.” Memory settings are to be turned off when AI tools are used for informational purposes. And though it tested highly (surprisingly so) in reliability for answering basic questions on Jesus and Christianity, the China-based AI DeepSeek is expressly prohibited for use regarding any institutional purposes.
Gateway spokesman Tyler Sanders called the school’s approach to AI “cautiously optimistic.”
“We don’t have any institutional subscriptions to AI or [Language Learning Model] tools, but some staff use AI to assist on projects, and we do have some software tools with integrated AI solutions,” he said.
An academic policy for students and AI usage leaves some room for discretion by the professor. However, using such tools to produce content for course assignments is plagiarism. Even using AI for editing purposes “may constitute plagiarism.” Students using AI in a way a professor deems unethical is subject to Gateway’s academic integrity process.
Southwestern’s statement begins by saying the school “has adopted neither a strictly prohibitive stance nor an uncritical or overly optimistic view toward artificial intelligence.”
AI is “a human-created technology operating within God’s sovereign providence,” and as such, Southwestern is working “to engage AI responsibly, prudently, and creatively in service of its educational, operational, and missional purposes.”
A comprehensive policy framework is currently working through the approval process at SWBTS and is expected to be in place by the start of the next fiscal year.
New Orleans, similarly, is developing a staff usage policy to go along with an established one on academics and plagiarism. Trainings have encouraged “wise practice” with AI tools.
Individuals use AI periodically for day-to-day work tasks like email construction, coding, data analysis and creating worksheets for classes that are often edited heavily afterwards. AI usage is prohibited if it includes protected data such as student files, donor information or financials.
Midwestern also has an internal policy regarding AI systems that encourages employees to use the tools in such a way that secures student and school information. The policy also reinforces human accountability and requires employees to validate AI-generated information.
Use in missions
The two SBC missions-sending agencies have been active in using AI to generate evangelistic tools, with Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) also being part of the act.
FaithBot has over 400,000 users. And those are just in English. There are about 40 other languages with Gospel conversations taking place through the AI. WMU has used FaithBot, among other AI tools, and invited Barger to the entity’s January board meeting to lead a training in Generative AI.
Spokesperson Julie Walters told BP that WMU has paid accounts with ChatGPT, Otter and Eleven Labs, the last two known for transcription and voice-to-text tools.
“We are still exploring how to utilize other paid accounts for creating content such as videos, images and chatbots,” said Walters. “Some of the ways we have used AI include ideation, summarizing text, helping write social media content, video voiceovers and creating some images for product marketing.”
AI is not used for research nor for generating content for curriculum or blogs, she added. Writer contracts specify that all work must be human-sourced.
Share the Gospel is an AI assistant app produced by the North American Mission Board. Through it, the AI trains users to develop conversational skills with those of different faiths and backgrounds. Levels are divided into Easy (beginner), Medium (thought-provoking) and Hard (apologetics). A setting is provided with an opening faith-related question from the chatbot. The user responds, with the chatbot giving feedback and further questions from the user’s responses.
“It’s our first step into using AI for training and other purposes,” said Mike Ebert, NAMB spokesman. “We’re looking into other ways these tools can equip churches.”
What the future holds
The most anxiety-inducing part of the AI discussion is the jobs it will eliminate. Barger is of the opinion that people are “ill-prepared” for the changes coming over the coming years.
“We have college interns who work on my team in the summer,” he said. “I tell them that their job is to learn how to integrate AI into other tools. They’re all building stuff that does the grunt work.”
When you were born brings a built-in advantage, says Barger, a Gen Xer.
“We’re uniquely qualified to use AI because we did things before there was computers and we’re doing things with computers,” he said. “My parents never used computers and then my kids, especially my younger kids, never knew a day that computers and iPhones didn’t exist. And so, we’ve actually built and done stuff without computers, so we understand how to tell the computers what to do.”
The real-world concern is how AI may take the church staff positions like assistants and interns, often first jobs for ministry leaders. Waiting to see isn’t a good strategy. The 2023 resolution called on Southern Baptists to “proactively engage and shape these emerging technologies rather than simply respond to the challenges of AI and other emerging technologies after they have already affected our churches and communities.”
Podcasts about AI are plentiful. One, the AI Daily Brief, addressed the “Something Big is Happening” post. Although it comes from a secular perspective, thoughts near that episode’s conclusion speak to the doors that AI can ultimately unlock for ministry and the Great Commission.
“AI won’t shrink your future if you refuse to let fear shrink your vision,” said host Nathaniel Whittemore, founder and SEO for the AI planning platform Superintelligent. “…[O]ne of the assumptions that AI nervousness rests upon is that there is a fixed amount of work in the world to be done, and that if AI does a lot of it, humans won’t be able to.
“My argument is that we will always expand, that there is always more work to be done and more to be created based on that work.”
Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.
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