By James Laird | Reporter
Truett Seminary, the University Libraries and the College of Engineering and Computer Science will be hosting “AI and The Church” conference on Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The conference will feature five presentations over topics related to AI and its application to seminary as well as a panel Q&A. According to the event’s schedule, each speaker will present for an hour followed by a 15 minute break.
At 9:30 a.m., the first presentation will be by Dr. Pablo Rivas, assistant professor of computer science at Baylor, titled “An Introduction to AI.” Rivas’ presentation will be followed by Rev. Dr. Lyndon Drake, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, with a presentation titled “Developing a Theologically Informed Commitment for AI Practitioners.”
“If we want AI ethics to be persuasive to people who are religiously motivated, then it would be sensible for us to attend to theological reasoning as we try to both understand what’s good about AI systems and guard against the challenges and problems that they have,” Drake said.
Drake said his presentation will include some of his initial work looking into the “vocational realities of AI work.”
“So when we’re thinking about AI ethics, I think we should be thinking about those things, not so much, ‘How will the world change?’ but, ‘What do AI systems do to me as a human person?’” Drake said. “And as a Christian, ‘What changes am I hoping to see in myself? And will these systems further that cause or damage it?’”
Sydney, Australia, doctoral candidate Alison Gerber will be giving a presentation at the event titled “AI and the Sermon.” Gerber, who is the former pastor of Second Congregational Church in Peabody, Mass., said she hopes to emphasize the gifts humans have compared to AI in preaching, while still utilizing the positives of AI.
“That’s something that I hope people can take away [from the presentation], to try to move away from a machine like ministry to a human ministry,” Gerber said. “And then we use AI as a helpful assistant, an assistant which we can understand what she’s good at, and what she’s not so good at.”
Ellen Filgo, a librarian and the director of liaison program at Baylor, will be showcasing AI tools that are helpful in idea generation, like ChatGPT, and AI tools that are helpful in research, like the AI search assistant in One Search.
“I think in the church, it’s about creating connection and interaction between humans that is spurring a love towards God,” Filgo said. “So how can we love God and love our neighbor? And maybe there’s a way that AI can help us do that better or free up more time that we can spend in loving God and loving our neighbor more, so that’s my hope.”
