“Christian Perspectives On AI (Artificial Intelligence)”

icon-play Listen Now
Episode Summary

To equip and lead our families, we must understand the dramatic ways the world is changing RIGHT NOW. Tune in here or wherever you listen!

Artificial intelligence is accelerating change in almost every direction. While we shouldn’t be fearful, we should become knowledgeable in this so that we can effectively lead our families in a world soon to be saturated with AI’s influence. We share several scriptures to give a biblical perspective including sharing the similarities of today and the biblical account in Genesis of the Tower of Babble. We are living in fascinating times so buckle your seat belt and navigate your family’s direction well.

Main Points From This Episode:

  • We discuss the definition of Artificial Intelligence, singularity, and superintelligence.
  • Why this should matter to all parents.
  • We share the eerie similarity of today to the Tower of Babble situation in Genesis 11.
  • We give practical insights on considerations for parents regarding AI

Scriptures From This Episode:

– Romans 1:21-23 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

– 2 Timothy 1:7 – “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

– Genesis 1:26 – “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

– Genesis 11:1-9 – “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and they’re confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”

– 1 Corinthians 1:19 – “For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

– Colossians 2:8 – “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

All Ministry Resources: becourageousministry.org

Social Media For Christians – BE COURAGEOUS app

  • Exclusive access to the courageous kid’s podcast. Play it for your kids to stir up good discussions.
  • Monthly LIVE Q&A with the Tolpins; ask the anything.
  • Powerful Biblically minded community.
  • Topic-based discussion groups.
  • You get your own profile and can connect with others.
  • Resources on marriage, parenting, homeschooling, pregnancy/birth, and more.

We look forward to engaging with you on the inside!

FREE COURAGEOUS PARENTING WORKSHOP

Relevant Resource Links:

If The Spirit Prompts You to Financially Support (We are a for-profit, for social good organization.)

  • Financial Giving, is important to support our family and expand the impact of the ministry. We aim to impact 10 million families and their legacies. We are in full-time ministry as a family of 9 at home, so everything makes a difference. 

Thank you for being part of this movement to equip 10 million families and their legacies with Biblical truth to raise confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom.

And Isaac from Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children Biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age of 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

We’re praising the Lord that ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community. Enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 million legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes and other biblically based resources. Go to be courageous ministry.org.

Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Welcome back to the podcast, everyone.

Hey, everybody.

We’re so glad you’re here today. We’re talking about a weighty, important topic. It’s something that we all need to talk about as Christians. We need to understand better so that we can parent well, so we can, you know, protect our families and run the race well and just have an understanding of how the world is changing. So this is about Christian perspectives on AI or artificial intelligence.

You know, this is a topic that Isaac has been sharing different ideas and scripture and teaching the kids. We have our family meetings in the mornings, and this has been a really interesting conversation that we’ve had with the kids. And obviously it’s a very rapidly growing tool, if you will, that people are using all around the world. And so we just felt like this was a super relevant topic to parents today, because how do you navigate leading your children and teaching them how to be wise in the world and what what really is the Christian perspective on this? So we’re going to dive into some scriptures today that we’re really excited to share with you guys.

You might be wondering, is there a Christian perspective? It’s technology, you know, it’s a tool that helps and so forth. And so there definitely is. I mean, we believe there is We have some strong opinions about it. Obviously, we’re not the world’s foremost experts on artificial intelligence, but we do know some things and we know what the Bible says. And we feel like there’s an important jurisdiction that we have to make sure we teach whatever is pressing on our hearts well.

And it’s also what’s pressing on the culture at the time, because that does affect parenting. Right? And so we’re going to bust open Romans chapter one here. To start off, I just want to share this scripture with you. It’s chapter one, verses 21 through 23, which says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Well, that scripture comes to light in a whole new way than ever before. Yeah, it’s amazing. The Bible is so amazing. It becomes more and more relevant the further in time we go. And it’s always been relevant. But, you know.

How does that relate to AI? Because we might have some moms and dads listening that are like, okay, how does that.

So so AI isn’t something simple like, you know, doing a search on Google or something like that or, you know, having something transcribed text or something simple like that. This is a different level of technology where it’s making decisions, where it’s catching up to human intelligence and then will surpass it. It’s it’s literally it’s literally no, that’s happening. So, so it’s literally, um, a thing, you know, it’s, it’s a thing that can make decisions that’s not human. And in addition to that, to that scripture, what’s interesting is right now, the everyday person is mostly using it to create images, to write, you know, posts to write articles to, you know, make their LinkedIn better. There was this really there’s one of the top marketing people just gave recommendations on how to use AI, and one of them was, Hey, you can have I write these really in-depth statistical articles to make you look really good when you’re looking for a job and things like that. And it’s like, well, wait a minute, if you didn’t write it then that you know, it might make you look good.

But, but are you actually going to be good enough to fulfill the position that you get, or are you promoting yourself as being more than you are actually? Which talks I think about scriptures where the Bible warns us not to be haughty or boastful in our own eyes about who we are, right? That totally applies to that.

So back to the images real quick. So that scripture is, you know, fake images of fake people created by robots. I like using the word robot because that is what it is. It might have legs and feet at this time, but it’s got the mind that’s being built. Okay. So it’s a robot that is creating, Oh, I want a picture of this and this and this. You probably see memes out there, um, you know, and it’ll create an original new picture.

Well, and I’ve even seen like, there’s a couple accounts that I follow to keep track on certain things as well. And I’ve seen some of them sharing images that I made of humans like when they would do a search in chat, whatever it is, I don’t even know what it’s called. But they they would do a search in their eye for something specific, right? Like a people group. And they would give them images that were generated by AI. But looking at it, they can’t even get human hands. Correct. Like a lot of times they’ll give six fingers on a human hand, more like prompts.

I mean, it’s in the beginning, right? It’s going to get better, but more like prompts. You give the technology. Want this and then I want this and I want this. And then it brings you back an image with those 3 to 10 elements, however many elements you want. And it comes up with this original picture. But the problem is you don’t know what’s real and what’s God created. And I don’t think God is for that. Meaning that if you’re watching a video of a newscaster, for example, in the future, not too distant future because this is the capabilities are there now, you won’t know if that’s a real human or not or if.

What they’re saying is actually truthful, which has been an issue in media for a long time.

Anyway. But I think we’re diving way in. I just want to thank you for we’re going to dive into some things, but I want to thank you for being part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. And just an update on us. You know, springtime is coming about. We’re clearing a field for bigger crops. We’re going to take a deeper stab at this farming thing. And the garden is, you know, going to be great. I see all the starts right here to my left. Do you think that.

Is it’s maybe 200.

300 stars. It’s beautiful. Everything looks healthy.

God is blessing it for sure because we haven’t had very many seeds planted that didn’t come up. Thank you, Jesus.

So we’re in stage two of our multi-stage farming plan. A stage represents a year, a season. And so stage two is fun and it’s hard work. It is hard work.

We’re both kind of tired, but no, we’re doing good. Yeah.

So anyways, family’s good. All those things. We just had a great Passover meal, didn’t we?

It was amazing. I mean, you guys are so many things we could talk to you about on here to let you guys in a little bit more. But you know, you’re going to find out more if you’re especially if you’re a part of the Be Courageous app because we do these lives in there and obviously we’re able to share more about our personal life and what we’re doing and answer questions. And it’s very different kind of setup than a podcast is in.

The homesteading group is really catching fire and you’re really sharing some really good wisdom. Thanks.

Actually have some more videos I need to upload in there. You just reminded me. Yeah.

She’s kind of keeping a log and educating on stage two here of.

Making our own chicken feed. What that recipe is, how it works, how to ferment chicken feet is the next thing that I’m teaching people. Also, how to make your own soil for seedlings. We did that and I’m teaching about tomato transplanting tomato.

Together. We’ll be teaching about marriage and the marriage group in that too soon. So anyways, join that. It’s a it’s a premium app means it costs something, but it’s far more valuable than the cost, you know, and it supports the ministry.

Yeah. And since we’re talking about the app this actually I got a question today because in my insta stories I shared a video of someone talking about how dangerous a Lexus was. That is kind of it’s acting like I in some ways and how dangerous it was for stealing, if you will, because that’s what I would call it, is stealing people’s voices and and making new messages based upon their voices. And then people are using this to get ransom money. They’re lying to family members saying that they’ve kidnapped them. There’s all kinds of things that have happened on just.

To clarify here. So Alexa isn’t doing it another form of AI is taking hacking into that voice wherever the ghetto, whether it’s from a Lexus or they do a fake phone call first and record your voice or different methods, and then they use AI to be in your daughter’s voice, be in your son’s voice, be in a parent’s voice and call somebody tricking them.

Yes. Which I think is a really important part of this conversation because they could get it many different ways. Right? Like someone even messaged me saying that that happened to their family members. But you know, how they got the voices was using someone’s voice mail like they had recorded their voice mail and they used their voice to create that whole scenario. And so there’s a lot of ways that that could be potentially used. But when I was sharing this on Instagram, I got a lot of messages from people going, So are you going to stop the kids podcast? Where’s the kids podcast? Is it safe? And I said, Hey, that’s part of why we created the Be Courageous app was to at least create another firewall of protection, if you will. But the truth is, is I mean, I can hack things and stuff like that as well. We have no idea what the potential of it.

Well, we’re not living in fear, but we’re going to educate. We’re going to be educated and we’re going to keep doing the ministry. We’re not going to stop. We’re going to be bolder than ever and and proclaim things and trust that God’s protecting us. But while we also trust that God’s protecting us, we need to understand things. Walk in wisdom, be wise as serpents, innocent as a dove, as scripture talks about. So super, super important to do that.

So yeah, and I think that that, that actually goes right into our next verse that we had to share. Good. Which is in second Timothy chapter one, verse seven says, For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. And it just continues. And it talks about suffering and persecution and different things like that. Guys, this is the way this is what we can expect walking as Christians in a fallen world and we are in a fallen world. And so I think that this is a message that we need to actually. Live by. Not just say, but live by.

How exciting that our faith really shines as the darkness grows darker and as things get more complex in society and strange every day. Right? It kind of feels that way, doesn’t it? Every day there’s some new strange thing that here in the news or something like that or every week, depending on how when you tune in. And so we’re we’re to walk strong and you know, persecution is going to come. And I think in a lot of free countries, we’re not used to real persecution. Many people listening in from around the world are in different places. And thank you for listening. We hope this is encouraging to you. But you know what? We as Christians in many places, free countries especially, have to get stronger. We have to get thicker skin in regards to our faith. And that’s not.

Allowing worry to overcome us. Right. Like that’s the strength that we need to actually have in in acknowledging, hey, why are we worried? God chose to put us in this generation and with him we can handle this like we can. We can get through this, right? Yeah. And that’s exciting.

My son Luke, the other day, he said, How many years since the Earth was created? Of course, this is, you know, a lot of biblical people say around 6000 years. You know, you talk to other people, they’re going to say millions and billions of years and things like that. We don’t believe that. But anyways, I said about 6000 years. And and he said, wow, Statistically, it’s really rare that we that I would be alive in this time. So close to the end. That’s incredible.

I mean, what a what an exciting perspective. It gives you some extra purpose. I love that he said that. Thanks for sharing that.

But at the same time, our children know it may or may not be, Then we’re going to live in the perspective that we’re going to grow old and our kids are going to grow old, their kids and their kids many generations, while at the same time Jesus could come back tomorrow. So we’re sort of to live in both of those realities.

Yes. Which seems like a paradox, but it’s actually what we’ve been doing for a long time. And it’s fun. It’s exciting. Yeah. You know, so, Isaac, let me ask you a question. Why is this conversation about artificial intelligence? I what is it specifically and why does it matter to the Christian parent?

Well, it really does because, you know, we’re going to be in the world, Right. And so rapidly things are changing on a week by week basis as this is developing. There’s different tech companies with like a competitive war. It’s kind of like when the iPhone came out. It’s like all the other phone manufacturers are like, we got to catch up as fast as we can. That is happening at a bigger scale right now with these AI platforms and so forth and tools they’re building and who knows what’s going on behind the scenes And the So it’s it’s important because we’re living in the world and it’s part of our world and it’s becoming part of the world. It’s not stopping. It’s not going to slow down. It’s going to become integrated into all kinds of things. Google soon is going to have an integrated into their search engine. I’m not sure how exactly how that works. But anyways, all of this stuff is going to change the tools that we’re used to using on an everyday basis. It’s going to change those tools and and it’s accelerating. In fact, one of the things that word accelerating is very interesting because now that artificial intelligence is smart, now the acceleration of everything happens. So in the medical world, the acceleration of discovering new ways to solve problems in the medical world is accelerating. You can say, well, that’s good. Well, everything has some good things to it. I’m sure that is going to be good in some ways. But, you know, there’s aspects of, you know, the way the world is that you’ll probably use that and not so good ways, too, right? So we have to be thinking about that. So an acceleration of everything is happening. In fact, one weird thing that I just saw on the news is the Biden administration is thinking over whether or not to give artificial intelligence patent rights. So it would be the first time ever that a non-human gets patent rights. So that’s the beginning of artificial intelligence, potentially getting rights like a human does. I thought that was just so weird.

Well, imagine the potential lawsuits in the future where AI can sue humans or different things. Just envision this, right? Like they think that they control things. This could be very, very I mean, it’s going to be different. That world is going to be different. But when you look up the actual definition of artificial intelligence, the Webster’s dictionary says it’s a branch of computer science dealing with the stimulation of intelligent behavior in computers. And the Oxford Dictionary says is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making, translation between languages. And so what you’re talking about right there and giving AI rights, like there’s another scripture that we want to take you guys to that’s huge is Genesis chapter one, verse 26 says, Then God said, Let us make man. Man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth. How much of the earth? Oh, all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So listen, this is the Dominion mandate. This is God’s design of the world. So as biblical Christians, we believe what Genesis says. We look at this and we go, okay, so this whole giving I human rights goes against God’s design of dominion mandate. Do you see that? Because man should have dominion over the technology that they create, not vice versa. In a side.

Note, you know, I read another article where there there’s some company testing the language of animals, you know, and as soon as they believe that they can detect the animal speaking, the animal speaking in this kind of thing, then the next step is to give them rights, Right. And these kinds of things. So it’s just something interesting that we’re to protect and take care of animals, not abuse them and those kinds of things. That is good dominion, right? Good stewards. But now that you know, so the Bible doesn’t speak to technology, having rights like humans in growing smarter than humans. So I think that’s interesting that it doesn’t talk about that. You can think to yourself, well, why does it not talk about that? But God did handle human beings in a way. And we’re going to talk about that in a second. But, you know, really what’s happening is this technology is gaining what they call super intelligence, and there’s something called singularity or technological singularity. Ray Kurzweil, I think, is his name. He predicts by 2045 that this will happen, and that is where tech growth becomes uncontrollable, irreversible, and there’s unforeseeable changes that happen because of it. I remember sitting at a conference where Mr. Kurzweil, I think is his name, was speaking about this, and this was maybe a dozen years ago. And I remember believing that this is probably going to happen. Interesting. But just thinking that’s so far out there. That’s so far out there. Here we are just 12 years later, and we’re living in a time where this is getting much closer.

And so it’s interesting because we also talked a little bit about this in the first podcast of the year. How many of you guys listen, I hope you.

Listen to that one.

What was the first part? It was titled Our Our Predictions for 2023.

We thought it would be fun to start the new year with, you know, kind of some of the things we see happening, trends we see in the world, things to be aware of. And, you know, let’s see if they happen or not. How could this affect parents? We talked about artificial intelligence and plagiarism issues and some other issues that we’re already seeing. There’s lawsuits out there about this right now, and we talked about that in January. So go listen to that episode. It’s all of our predictions for this year because I think we’re trying to help parents think further ahead because the the speed of change is so accelerated. And now with AI, it’s going to accelerate even faster. That’s my point. So we as parents, we need to be proactive. We need to be proactive. We need to be in the know not to let it overtake us in any stretch of the imagination, in fear or anxiety or anything like that, or even our time. But we are to be knowledgeable because we have to make decisions before proactive decisions before they potentially hurt our family.

And it’s interesting, you’re talking about having proactive decisions. So here’s an example, right? Let’s just say your kids come home from school and their teacher assigned them to use AI some chat form to do something because they want to teach them how to do it. I don’t know if this is happening, but imagine that this potentially happens and you haven’t been proactive in parenting and teaching your kids about the dangers of that or your family’s personal or spiritual convictions about whether you’re going to use this or not, and then they just start using it. You have no idea. And then it starts getting integrated into more apps on the phone, different technology, maybe even social media. We have no idea. And you’re literally not parenting. Like if you don’t have these conversations, that is equal to not parenting on that topic.

I would say if children are teaching you about the technological changes happening in the world, then you’re not parenting Well, You need to be the one in this.

Area of.

Technology area. You need to be the ones in the know so you can guide your children in how to use these things and be the first one to talk to them about it. You should be an authority about different things that are happening so they respect your opinion so you have an opinion that they can respect.

You know? And on this note, too, can I just say that like we don’t know at all? Like, no, like technology that is coming up and being created and this is all new to everybody. Can I just say that? Yeah, like we are all navigating this for the first time for sure. Isaac and I had some really bad gut feelings, like, Holy. I really believe it was the Holy Spirit warning us that’s being wise as a serpent. When. Your is saturated in the Word of God and you’re asking for God to warn you so that you can be proactive in guiding his people and training your children. And that’s where our heart has been at, is how can we equip and motivate and exhort other Christian parents to be equipping their kids proactively so that they’re not behind and then their kids are swooped up by the waves of this secular society that is trying to lead them to all different kinds of idols. And so it really this is where the rubber meets the road. You have to listen to that and then do due diligence, do the research, continue reading Scripture. And and as these different scriptures that we’ve shared with you so far. Romans 121 through 23. Second Timothy one seven Genesis 126 We’re going to read a couple more like, these are good scriptures you could be going through with your kids. That’s why I just repeated them to you. So guys, listen, this is proactive. Parenting would be going, okay, so there’s these scriptures. How do you guys think this applies to what’s happening in the world today? This is what’s being created.

So good, so shifting into our next point, which is about the Tower of Babel, there was a time it’s in Genesis, it’s only in Chapter 11. So not very far into the Bible, the first book of the Bible and only the 11th chapter. Boy, a lot has already happened. God has been busy. Lots of interesting things. The flood has already happened, happened a couple chapters back, I believe. And so now we’re in Chapter 11. And it’s really interesting because what happened here, I like suspense. What happened here is also what is just recently happening now. And God took action. So it’s just really fascinating to see. Of course, I don’t know. I can’t speak for God. I don’t know what he’s going to do next. Exactly.

But but we can learn from history.

We can learn from history.

Here he has done.

Let’s check this out now. The whole earth had one language in the same words. Okay. Let’s stop there. Through technology today, every language potentially can understand each other. Do you know that? You know, there’s a little translate button on social media, right? So you can literally read posts from all around the world in your own language by hitting translate. I believe Google has that, too. Twitter has that functionality now. So it’s growing all over the place where everybody can understand everybody. So we are now in the same place that the world was way back in the beginning of the Bible, Near the beginning, okay. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they and by the way, that’s in Iraq today is where that would be. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen. I don’t know if I said that right for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. There it is.

What ended up happening to them. Hang on.

There it is. So make a name for yourself. So that’s pride. That is like I want my name to be known. I want to conquer. I want to have the tallest. I want to get to heaven with my own strength. Right. Wow. Isn’t that sound like arrogance, human wisdom of the world, which is I want to be my own God. I’m in control of my own destiny. I’m going to create technology to mix with my brain, to live forever. These are thoughts the elite have. Okay. So some of the elite. So now you have that. Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed. Okay? And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. So the Lord came down to check it out and the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do. So because of the strength of the human race, being able to understand and communicate with each other, this is what was happening. And the next part is so important. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Wow. So when you see things out there, like when I see a company that is taking DNA from a woolly mammoth, a fossil, and then and they’re in process of creating a new woolly mammoth, I believe that they’re doing that because I’m looking at this right here is that we’re in that age where everybody can understand each other. And right now we have artificial intelligence accelerating everything, the power of computers processing way faster than human brains.

And that’s all happening at the same time as evil and tickling ears and people accepting evil for good and good for evil and all of these things that are also predicted in Matthew chapter 24 and Mark 13 and and all of the warnings that is all currently happening worldwide for the first time ever, actually worldwide, that is happening in simultaneously with people from all over being able to communicate it. And here we are.

Okay. So I’m just going to read it again. Behold, they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

It’s interesting to think about we’re not going to get into this, but it says, let us go down there. Yeah, I love the US. Go down there and we’re going to confuse them, right? Yeah.

It’s so it’s so cool. So, you know, that is really fascinating, isn’t it? And I don’t think it should be fearful of these things. It’s just let’s look what the Bible says. Let’s understand it and let’s realize that, wow, God was frustrated that everybody could understand each other because then they were accelerating things that God didn’t want them to do. And they were starting to develop a pride in their own strength and abilities in trying to be their own gods. And he dispersed them. He dispersed them, Yeah. Now look at what’s happening at a much greater level than building one skyscraper. Okay, That was the issue there, right, with that intent. So just think about the Tower of Babel and what happened. And now there’s the you know, I there’s transhumanism move towards singularity and all these things. Okay. So let’s talk about some considerations as parents. This is where probably more practical information is coming. Yes. Obviously, the thing we already mentioned where there’s a real potential threat of extortion and by pretending to be a family member in their real voice, accurate inflections and everything created by artificial intelligence, calling you on the phone and trying to extort you for money and things like that. I think that there does need to be an awareness of that. It’s almost impossible to hide your voice. Obviously, we can’t hide our voice. That’s what we do. We literally.

Have to quit being in ministry and delete everything.

But that’s not even a thought of ours. So. So it’s it’s. But to understand that when you know that you’re more equipped, when that happens to you or if that happens to you. So that’s the thing. But you know what some people say, well, wait a second, Isaac and Angie, this is like when the smartphone came out, it made life easier. This is like when sprinkler systems were invented. Now you can flip a switch and, you know, water your whole yard, right. Or washing.

Machines or.

Dishwashers. This is this is and by the way, part of me hurts a little bit to be kind of negative on AI because I really love technology. I use it all the time. When the I first iPhone came out, I literally got it right.

Away and I was like, Hello. We were going to wait and talk about it.

I got it right away. That thing is so awesome. That was a game changer, you know? And I remember getting an iPad right away too, and using that when I was giving speeches and things. And it did make life easier, made so much. It was, Wow, I’m like, this is so great. But you know what? To a point. To a point, we have to be. Well, wait a minute. What’s wrong with having it like that expert said? And write your LinkedIn blog post so that you look really want to take a moment and give you something for free if you haven’t got it already is the date Night one sheet. It is a beautiful document you can download that will have some key questions on it for your date night. Just get in alignment about what’s most important for your family. No matter what time of year, it’s always important to recalibrate. You can get that by going to courageous Parenting.com and subscribing to our mailing list. Also, you can get all of our show notes and everything at Courageous Parenting.com. And I also just want to share real quick about the Parenting Mentor program. So many families are being transformed by going through this. It’s the six week self-paced program with live engagement from us and even direct interaction. So if you want to join us, here’s a little bit more about it. You can find out more at Courageous Parenting. Dot com.

Steve and I realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our children.

What Angie and Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world. It has given.

Me the vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents who are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart. We now.

Have a game plan to how.

We want to raise our children. We have so many answers to the questions.

That have been in our mind.

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in Scripture this is.

Do your legacy a favor and yourself a favor and just do it.

One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year, and I could not recommend it more. We’re no.

Longer fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next.

Generation. Intelligent, you get a better job. Well, okay, but is that honest? See, this is where the moral dilemma comes in. And most of society already doesn’t think there’s a moral dilemma.

Right. Because they’ve already been conditioned, if you will, or brainwashed into thinking evil is good and good is evil. And so. Oh, and my sins are not as bad as that sins. Well, let’s just let’s extrapolate. Okay.

Let’s extrapolate this a little bit. It’s pretty simple. It’s like you traditionally, you would have to write your own, you know, blog or you have to write your own entry on something or on bio or whatever it is, your book, your your podcast script. Right? Whatever it is, you would have to write it. Now you can put some prompt. You still have to think, I get that. So I understand the arguments. You still have to think, what do I still my idea? What do I want? The content of this 20 page thing to be. So I have to give many prompts and then I still have to go in and edit and adjust things. Right? I might add a little too cents here and there and then I go, Voila. Now, is that your writing? See, that’s the question. Well, a lot of people are going to argue. Well, yes, it is, because I had the idea. Well, I don’t agree with that. Lots of people have ideas. It’s the people that do hard work and take action on those ideas that used to experience fruitfulness and used to everybody agreed would get credit for something right.

And there were certain people where gifts of the spirit were dispersed among the body for the edification of the whole. And you could even think of this in relation to how the economy works and how society functions, where God has given different gifts to different people. Right? So you have some people who are good at writing. You have some people who are good at speaking. You have some people who are good at helping with different doing research, and then they collaborate together to to write a book, right? You have a graphic designer that’s good with design that makes a cover and you pay them for their services. Well, now think of how many people are going to be potentially out of a job because of AI doing things that used to require human intelligence in a sense. I mean, that’s where it’s eventually going, right?

So and losing jobs to technology is something that’s always happened. So we get that, we get that. That’s been part of the process. But I think that the the integral thing is something that we really need to think about. What would you. Okay. But this is this is my job. This is what we do at work. This is part of society now and so forth. I’ve got so much to do. This makes things so much easier. And then I would just say, well, I think what we might see, I don’t have the definitive answer, but I think what we might see in the future is some little signature that says this was I influenced. I think that would be totally fine if it said this was written by AI with my help like or I influenced. And then you put your name, you know, I think that’s good. I think there’s going to be a draw towards Certified human and a logo for that with a thumbprint. That sure would be a thumbprint, right?

Hey, you kind of did that on our website back in January. I just noticed it. There’s this tiny little banner. I have to tell you this because I chuckled when I saw it, because it goes with our personal conviction on this topic. And Isaac’s been pretty passionate. He’s like, Man, I just wish there was some certificate out there or some thumbprint stamp or Golden Seal. You could say that was like created by humans only or certified human.

Like certified organic, certified human.

So creative. I love it. But he created this banner at the top of our website and be courageous ministry.org. You can go look at it and it just stands out and it just says we don’t use any AI to create our content. And I love that because that’s something that we’re going to stand behind indefinitely because we have a deep personal conviction to bring honest truth that’s found in God’s Word and stand behind our opinions on things and share our personal experiences so that hopefully you can learn from them, right? Like that’s the whole purpose. And you know, there is a bigger moral dilemma, too, when I think about education, right, when someone is even creating a resume. We were talking about this at the breakfast table and I was like, you guys, what about people who want to have multiple degrees if they’re able to just assign AI to write their papers so that they can get a master’s or a PhD or another degree in whatever, they could literally have multiple degrees and you don’t even know if they went and did all of the work. That’s how bad this is potentially. Is that the fact that I’m even thinking that that people would lie like that, that that would be something that would be on someone’s conscience. And and then when you’re as an employer trying to hire someone, you’re potentially hiring someone to do something. But they’re not who they said they were. That’s where the integrity issue really lies.

And then I think Ford, let’s say like Elon Musk is warning that this is more dangerous than nuclear weapons being fired off. He just recently said that, of course, he helped create the first chatgpt and then because he thought, well, if I have control of it, that would make things better. They’re going to create it anyway. And then he lost control of it, I believe, to Microsoft, who put in a bunch of money to finish it off. And he just announced today that he’s going to create truth. Gpt Because that’s a whole nother thing, which is his thing is like it’s totally bent liberal, left leaning. It’s not objective information. You put a search in, it’s going to write something in a in a more a woke ideology, if you will. And so that makes sense. So anyways, I thought that was interesting. But, you know, as we as we look forward, let’s say that this becomes really dangerous in the future and let’s say our enemy becomes artificial intelligence. Okay. How are you going to feel if all of your websites and all of the work you’ve done and all of the different things and the tools you’ve used has been fueling that? Uh huh. You know, I really love now I’m old school, right? I’m still getting pictures off of Adobe Stock for the different things we’re doing, and we’re not using AI in these kinds of things. But I like that because it’s a real picture, you know, and it’s a real picture of a human being that God made. Like if we use an image for a blog post or something like that, I personally think that’s. Good. I somehow feel better about that.

And I would say probably 90% of what we use is actually pictures of us. It’s our family of things that we pictures we take ourselves even though we’re not we’re not skilled photographers, but we do have some skilled photographers in our know.

It’s just stuff we’re thinking about, but work ethic And then and then what do you want your children to do? So this is the beginning level. We’re using cool tools. People are creating pictures and all this stuff, creating videos. They’re building courses with fake people and you can’t even tell anyways. What do you want your children to do? I think that’s the real question, because whatever we do is what we should be able to prescribe to our children.

Well, and I mean, if we want to be real blunt, you know, a lot of people always go, I just love it when you say, I just got to say it. So I just got to say it. When it comes to hypocrisy, kids can sniff it out in a minute. So if you as a parent are saying you can’t use I but you’re using it yourself big. No, no. There’s a massive honesty and integrity thing in your parenting, if that’s the case. Right. And so you really this is something that takes serious consideration, I would say pray and fast over it. Like I literally think that it’s that big of a deal because you have to parent your children. So whatever you’re doing, we should be walking as parents going, okay, humbly, I’m not perfect. I make mistakes, but do as I do. Be try to follow in my footsteps. That’s what discipleship is. A disciple is someone who follows their teacher. You’re your parents teacher. You should be confidently going, do as I do, be a wife like I’m a wife, be a mom like I’m a mom. Be a dad like he’s a dad. Like you should be able to live with that kind of integrity. And when you screw up, you say, I screwed up. I’m sorry. But on this topic, this is like a deliberate thing that you either choose to do or you choose not to do because it’s going to be a thing that you practice throughout your life, especially if it’s something you do for work or if it’s something that you’re doing as a hobby on the side and your kids are aware of that.

So just considerations. These are considerations to think about. We’re not the end all, be all in these things. We’re sharing some of our feelings right about the issue, some of our convictions. Yeah. So work ethic, honesty. How about writing skills? One of the things that really could go by the wayside is the ability for people to write. Because now if you have a robot that can write for you, well, wait a minute. I thought of the ideas. Ideas. I mean, I dream ideas all the time. I could be sleeping in ideas come so so I mean, I’m just saying. I mean.

Seriously, we should put a patent on the human certified business thing.

Just kidding. But I think as far as your children, I think I still think I am going to encourage my children to become great writers because I just I don’t know. You might think, well, is writing really that important anymore? Yeah, because you know what? It helps them be better thinkers, which helps them be better communicators. It helps. It leaves a.

Legacy. I mean, let’s just face it. As a homeschool mom, one of the first things that I noticed all those years ago when they cut cursive, I went, Well, then I’m bringing cursive back. Why would the school system have an agenda to cut cursive? And then it dawned on me immediately, all of the founding documents are written handwritten in cursive handwriting. So what would they do? They would stop teaching kids how to read and write cursive so that they can’t read the founding documents. Right. Well, now you’ve got AI that’s going to be a temptation. It’s not going to stop people from writing, but it’s going to be a temptation for people to stop using that muscle of thinking critically and putting their words down on paper, being able to do sentence structure grammatically accurate. And we’re not perfect at that. But that’s something that’s like as a homeschool mom, I’ve taught multiple times and it’s an art. It’s something that takes time and you have to invest in your thoughts and craft them carefully. And if you’re just if you’re not doing that muscle, once you try to step back into it again, it’s harder. It’s so much.

Harder. And by the way, thinking forward, there might come a day where people really I think people are going to gravitate back to what’s human. They’re going to want to know if the book they’re reading was written by a human or it was just somebody’s ideas and they had a robot write it. I think that they’re really going to care about that. I mean, that’s exactly true what it is.

No, you just I love how you say it.

So I just want to make sure people.

Understand the robot.

Wrote it. You know, I don’t want to be the boiled frog that just gets desensitized and goes, Oh, it’s just AI assisted, you know, blah, blah, blah. No robot wrote it. You had ideas. Okay. So, so, you know, in the future there’s going to be a drop towards what’s human. I really do think there will be some type of tag on things. I think that certain publishers will go, you know what, this is tagged with Certified human because it was written by human, because there will be increased credibility, I believe, in the future about things that humans wrote, because all of this where there’s going to be a flood of information, there’s already so much information. But now that you can just put ideas in and things can be written, produced videos, all this stuff, there’s going to be a flood of experts, there’s going to be a flood of information. And I think people are really going to want to know what God’s creation is actually thinking about versus humans creation robots. So I think that’s really important. So writing skills are important thinking skills, critical thinking. I think that is challenging the way technology is going. The more technology thinks for us, the less people think. It’s just like anything, when you delegate something, you now don’t work that muscle. Now it’s important to delegate some things. I’m right now needing to delegate some things. For example, in doing this ministry, there’s too many things, right? But and there’s certain things that are higher priority I need to do and I need to have someone else do these other things that more people can do than just me. And so I’m looking for that. So I get that. But just remember, when you delegate something, you slowly lose it. And if we the more we delegate thinking, the more you potentially lose it. I think certain people don’t because they are aggressive learners, they’re doers, they’re all those kinds of things. But not everybody has that personality and those personalities where, wow, it’s easier now I can just do whatever I want.

Most people would take that road.

Most people would take that road. And so I think it’s dangerous for society in a way flesh of the flesh can’t handle. Just like it’s a dangerous for society if they when there’s less jobs and they have to give, you know, 4000 a month to every single family in America and it’s kind of socialistic in a way. Well, that’s going to just cripple the work ethic. It just will. Not everybody, maybe not you, but you look at society at large, there’s so many people that it’ll demotivate.

On a further note, too, when someone when it cripples someone work ethic wise, what does that actually do to that individual’s identity of themselves? Because they’re no longer walking in the purpose for which God created them. And we’re not going to dive into that. But one of the purposes that God created us for was this Dominion mandate to be overseeing the animals, the birds, the land, the whole earth, everything in it. We are to work and garden and in a sense everything. We are supposed to tend it all and take care of it. And so as soon as that work ethic or that ability to be contributing to society in a purposeful kind of way or in the way that they were originally created to, as soon as that becomes delegated the identity, it’s like, Oh, I’m worthless, what am I worth? Right? And I just even I see this as being an attack specifically on all people, but but especially men as far as like being the providers and being able to bring a contribution to society. And I just see that this is just another attack from the enemy and we need to push back. I do believe that, like I think that a lot of people go, okay, well, we’re not going to be able to stop it, right? Isaac? This is going to continue. That’s true. You know, we know that even in doing this podcast with all of our listeners, if you all share this to ten people or you all shared the podcast, I.

Actually believe it will impact the.

World. It will impact the world, but I don’t think it’ll stop. I know because that there is an evil schemer that is doing behind the scenes through multiple different people. We’ve seen this happening through even just what we were talking about before with the messages that good is evil and evil is bad. You know, evil is good and and and twisting things and corrupting the perspectives. We’ve seen how successful the enemy has been in the last four and a half years, but this has been going on for a very long time.

So, you know, it’s interesting. There was a piece of artwork that just sold for $420,000 that was created by a robot at an art auction. And so who.

Gets that money?

I don’t know. Probably the person that created gave the prompts, you know, did the project. There is a project manager. You know, humans are still involved right now. I say right now because they won’t have to be involved down the road. Not if they’re.

Giving AI rights. Yeah.

So but you know, right now, you know, it’s I want this, this, this, this and this. And there’s another issue of plagiarism. There are some lawsuits out there of plagiarism happening, of AI, creating things that were from other works and so forth. So you also run that risk, even when I do an original thought, you know, on Resolute Man, the original quotes, I literally think I’m in my brain there. God inspired and even on courageous parenting and you and I together. And so, um, you know, I will run that in Google, even though I thought of it. I just want to make sure it wasn’t already put out there because you’re.

Constantly being educated.

On someone else’s name. Because I really care that if I put my name on something that I thought of it and that it wasn’t taken from somewhere, even if it was unawares. So that is really, really important. I think we need to bring that back. We need to instill that in our home, that we only put our name on things, we actually create it. And then that becomes a dilemma when it comes to artificial intelligence, because did you really create it when you spent five, ten minutes or less giving it some prompts and then having someone else edit it for you?

I think that the issue that I have with it more than anything on the on the integral line of integrity is that it’s something that we choose to do or not do like. So we would have already had to think through all of these potential things, right? And then we either choose to deliberately use it or we choose deliberately not to use it. And so there because there is a choice and it’s not like an accidental sin in my mind, it either it’s a bigger deal, right? Because then it’s like, Oh, you taste how easy it is to get this potential assignment done right? Like, I just think of the college students sitting in the dorm and they’re like, Oh, now I can go out with the girls or Oh, now I can go. I can play that sport because I’m going to have all these hours freed up on time because I can just do it all in AI. And like once they get a taste of that, what are the future habits that are going to be created from it? And that’s the work ethic thing that you were talking about before. But then over time, it’s not just a choice you made, it becomes your character. And so what you’re talking about with the integrity is it’s like having integrity with yourself. It just reminds me of something that you have talked a lot about, even with our boys, right? Like when you say something to someone, your word better. As good as gold to yourself, right?

Well, when you say something, your word should be as good as gold. But more important than what you say to other people, what you say to yourself. Your word should be as good as gold. Your follow through. When I say I’m going to do something, I know that I have to do it because I get things done that I say to myself I’m going to do. And that’s where there’s a lacking a whole nother topic in a way. But I think you’re right. I think we need to build kids, children, future adults that are strong. They’re going to stand firm, they’re going to have integrity. They’re going to have integrity. And this is part of it that embraces all these things I do think is dangerous. The smartest tech people believe AI is dangerous, even the ones creating it. But it’s it’s capitalism run amok in a way. It’s like it’s going to take off in this huge way and it has a potential to be detrimental to society. However, guess who’s still in control? God, God is always in control. God is all powerful, way more powerful and all these things. But it’ll be tumultuous on Earth for a while and you know, increasingly so. And some things might be easier through technology, but there’s a cost to that. And I think the cost is greater than the benefits in this case. First Corinthians 119 says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart going on. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe right? So anyways, God is like promising. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. That’s a quote from Isaiah in the Old Testament quoted in First Corinthians, by the way.

And think about the frustration that there could be for the for the individual. That’s let’s just say it has to do with your provision. Right. And your man or woman working in a in a workforce where the bosses have said, hey, you guys can use AI for this. Think of journalism, right? And they’re like, you guys can use AI to help you to create your articles that you’re going to write, right? And let’s say one of the people that is working there has a conviction about not wanting to use that. So they stick to their conviction. And meanwhile they see their their comrades or colleagues soaring because they’re just pumping out article after article after article because they’re literally not having to put in as much work, whereas they’re toiling over this one article and it’s going to be beautiful, but it’s one there’s going to be a temptation. It’s going to be frustrating, right, even for those people. But I just want to encourage those of you who are that person that God sees and we’re to work heartily as unto the Lord. And like he delights in the person who is having integrity and working hard because of that integral conviction.

And by the way, my opinion and is that if it says something like at the bottom in influenced by artificial intelligence, influenced by AI, I’m like, okay, thanks for telling me. That’s cool. I wouldn’t be opposed to that actually.

But I probably wouldn’t read it.

But yeah, I’d be less likely to read from robots. I mean, I’m just being honest. I want to hear from humans. I’m just suspicious of these robots, especially the programmers and the way they’re slanting their the way they see information, their paradigm, the AIS paradigm, this, this fake beings paradigm. I want to use words that stir you up a little bit. So it is becoming a being. Okay. I hope you catch that this this isn’t just regurgitating grabbing content from the internet and spitting it back out. Yeah.

And I mean, let’s, let’s just ask some hard questions for a second and say what would be the purpose of even creating AI? What would be the purpose of using it? What is the ultimate purpose? Like, what would be an agenda? I’m just going to leave you with that question and let you kind of take that one away with you, because for us, when we ask those hard questions, that’s part of what helps us to to mold our convictions. Right? That’s what leads us to the Bible to search for answers. And we need to ask why it’s okay to be skeptical. And actually, I think that we probably should be skeptical of things in this world. And but we also need to expect virtue in other people and not let this whole thing. I just want to say one thing. I feel like this whole thing, it would be very easy to discourage someone from feeling like, well, man, the world is evil, right? And to lose heart in the goodness of what God has created and that people can be walking with him and be spirit filled and be walking in joy. And I want to encourage you that that is not the reality of the world, that there is both coexisting together. And we need to teach our kids that both coexist in the same fallen world and that we are meant to be lights to all of those who are walking in corruption or in evil or are fallen or lost.

Amen. And Colossians two eight, it says, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. So yes, that.

Is so it’s a good warning. We just wanted to wrap up with that specific scripture in Colossians two eight as a warning, because God, God does warn us to not get wrapped up in things, to not be led astray. And, you know, when it when it said elemental spirits of the world, I almost think of this kind of stuff, right? You think of the technology that’s got the the evil people behind potentially behind it or, you know, when you think of liberal fact checkers that are choosing to eliminate freedom free speech, and that is a spiritual battle, I’m just going to say it for what it is. There is evil forces. There is a prince of the darkness of this age, just like it says in Ephesians six. And we’re in a spiritual battle. So go read now, go read Ephesians six with your family and put on that full armor because we are called to get out there. We’re called to be in this world and to be raising our kids to be the the the loving, tender warriors, if you.

Will, and if you love this episode, please share it. It helps the ministry helps more people be aware of these things. And regardless if you agree on every single point, I think all Christians need to be aware and be thinking this is to stimulate thinking about this and everybody needs to make their own decisions for their own family as they lead.

Oh yeah. Can I just one last thing. Disputable and indisputable issues. I think that this one would land in the disputable issue category. Just want to put that out there. It’s not something that’s like a salvation thing. But we you know, obviously we come on strong sometimes when we have a deep conviction about something. And we would just pray that, you know, we’d be able to respectfully be able to challenge one another in that. Right? And so we’re bringing forth an idea that honestly, I haven’t seen a lot out there. I haven’t seen a lot of Christians bringing forth a biblical perspective on it. And so hopefully this is encouraging to you. And one last thing is that in marriage, sometimes couples don’t always agree on things. And if you and your spouse or one of you is listening or if both of you are listening together, we just want to encourage you guys that the most important thing is that you’re obeying God and you’re in alignment together and your parenting decisions and how you’re living out life. And so encourage one another, sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron. But also like you should be pursuing unity with your spouse on this specific topic. So we are praying for marriages, so we want you to know that. And we believe that God can actually grow you in a stronger intimacy together as you discuss and you try to parent together biblically. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be courageous Ministry org for more biblically based resources. Ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible be courageous app community for believers.

Also we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online parenting mentor program.

Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week we release a video session with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

This is an incredible self-paced program. We cover everything from tending to their hearts, handling obedience to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private group and the Be Courageous app, live webcasts and direct access to us.

If you’re interested in joining our next online parenting Mentor program, secure your spot now at be courageous ministry org that’s be courageous ministry.org.

 

Written By Angie Tolpin
Angie has been married to Isaac for 19 years and together they have eight children, whom she homeschools. She is the Founder of CourageousMom.com, a doula, the author of the best-selling book Redeeming Childbirth, and the creator of the first ever Christian Postpartum Course. Angie loves ministering to Women and has created a few online Bible Studies on Biblical Friendship and Motherhood.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Create a Godly Legacy
free tips & trainings every wednesday