It seems that everywhere you look in our modern society, there’s a plethora of AI (Artificial Intelligence) advancements, such as in political, educational, scientific, and creative spheres. Recently, I stumbled across a new advancement, an AI artist creating music. This is where the lyrics, vocals and instrumentals are all being generated by AI in place of humans creating the music. While it is alarming how AI is taking over certain creative works, what caught my attention even more is how it has entered into the art of Christians.
Christianity Today wrote an article addressing this finding and how one might react as a Christian. Solomon Ray was the AI Christian artist mentioned in the article, and he caught the attention of many due to the rising popularity of his worship songs. The creator of Ray was Christopher Townsend, who referred to himself as the “man behind the machine.”
Even though the “man behind the machine” is a human, who is also Christian, the idea that people are connecting spiritually with AI music left me with a sense of unease, and ultimately question the role that AI is playing in our society, specifically in Christianity.
MADE TO CREATE
It is clear in scripture that we were created to ultimately create as well, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).
While the idea of Christians using AI is inevitable, when does our daily use of AI begin to cross the line of disobeying what God created us to do? Is it asking ChatGPT to curate the perfectly worded email, or using Grammarly to double check your work before hitting that submit button? And even if someone does decide to go on an AI detox, it is difficult to escape AI in one’s daily use. Every time you type something into Google, the first thing to pop up is the AI overview, or when you use Maps, AI finds the best possible route for you to take.
There are many other aspects of our daily life that have AI integrated into them so deeply that we can’t go a day without using them, even if our usage is done so unconsciously. So the question one should be asking isn’t whether or not AI is bad to use, we are at a point where that is too far to escape, but rather, where do we draw the line as Christians to ensure we are still creating as we were created to do?
Torrey Honors College Professor Christina George has spent the last year and a half doing research on AI and how it interacts with learners, specifically students. She has published an essay addressing this issue, and has given a lecture on it at Baylor University. While wrestling with this topic, George noted how she has been using the passage, John 1, as a framework for her research.
“So the reason why this is a really helpful passage, I think, is because when I think about this first creation of the world, it’s this incarnate God who comes to be with us, and speaks something good into being, and does so as this person of the Trinity. Of course when we think of God the Son we think of His humanness, His real humanity that connects us to Him and connects us to the Father, and is aided by the Spirit,” George said. “And the language in John, of His coming into the world and becoming flesh is so important, and it’s so real, and it unites the act of creation to knowing God in this very specific person of the Trinity. That is immediately diluted when the act of creation takes place in the form of a machine.”
This passage highlights the importance of the act of creation, as it enables us to connect with Christ through it. This gives immense power through the act of creation, and immense beauty to the fact that God gave humans the ability to create for His glory and to worship Him. So why would we give the authority of something inhuman to create over humans and the gifts that God has bestowed upon us?
CAN YOU CONNECT WITH AI?
While defending his use of AI in creating worship songs, Townsend said in an Instagram video that he cannot be the one to decide what God will and will not use to share the word to His people. A question posed by this argument is whether or not a human has the ability to connect spiritually with a medium that has no soul.
George noted that humans do have the ability to connect with AI music, even though it is not good for us. That we have the ability to connect with many things that are not beneficial towards us, and the reason why those things are not beneficial to us is because we were not intended to connect with them.
“It’s certainly possible to connect with all sorts of manners of things, it doesn’t mean that the things we’re attracted to are good, and that’s the difficulty. We are made to love God, and Augustine rightly acknowledges that we are restless until we identify Him as the source of the rest and the enjoyment that we seek,” George said. “But we also love a bunch of other lesser things. Which is why there are really important esthetic questions being asked, and have been asked for millennia, about what is good art? What does it mean to create? What does it mean to identify an actually beautiful thing? Are all things beautiful just because they’re pleasing?”
Because of our sinful nature, we have the ability to connect with many things that God did not intend for us to connect with. And because of that, we should not lean on our own understanding of whether or not it is beneficial for us.
“… I think if we start to assign the responsibility for good judgement to anyone who feels connected to something, we will lose a lot of hope and we will lose something of what it is to be human,” George said.
When presented with the opportunity to connect with AI, one must gain a sense of discernment of whether or not they should be consuming it.
“…In order to be able to judge it well and even determine if your affection for it is fitting, you have to cultivate knowledge about the thing that you are enjoying…” George said. “D’Alembert the philosopher writes, you also can apply philosophy to sort of untangle the different aspects to see if what you’re considering is actually good.”
A CHANGE IN HUMAN DESIRE
In addition to the danger of consuming AI art, it poses other threats to our wellbeing. Many students are presented with the challenge of creating while the ability of AI is continuously growing, and how that might impose on their current major and future career. Freshman piano performance and music composition major Campbell Leiloglou commented how he does not feel threatened with the quality of AI music, but rather, the change that the human desire has gone through because of the development of AI.
“I think really AI can only imitate it, [and] can never truly innovate. And when it comes down to it, I don’t think the arts are in danger of being rivaled by AI in terms of progress. But I do think they’re in danger of being stifled by AI because of what it does to human desires,” Leiloglou said. “I think people are willing to settle for AI, and it’s kind of changing the way people listen to music and appreciate art, and I’m worried that that’s going to nullify the ability of human creatives. Just by filling the ears of people with this inert AI music, kind of stifling out, you know, the music of universalists that real human beings are tapping into.”
George presented an idea of how one’s desire is changing because of the ease that AI provides during a lecture to the students of Torrey Honors College on March 17. She opened with an excerpt from T.S. Elliot’s “Burnt Norton,” from the Four Quartets, asking about the relationship between love and desire, and having students write down what they thought the relationship might be.
“I used that poem at the beginning because Elliot is difficult to read and understand well, and I have grown to love his work immensely because of the struggle that is required to understand it,” George said.
To find the true meaning and beauty of a piece, the reader often needs to spend time in the unease of questions in order to fully understand it. George highlights that because of the integration of AI in our world, the beauty that is found in this midst of struggle is diminishing. Many would rather give into the answers that AI tools can provide than rely on their own understanding of the piece. From that, people are losing the ability to love and appreciate beautiful art, whether that is a worship song, or an Elliot poem.
“I think we’re losing the intellectual ability to understand, but perhaps more importantly, we are in fact losing the capacity to cultivate real love for real things, because we are no longer engaging in the struggle that’s always required of love,” George said.
UNITING THROUGH ART
During this ever-changing and challenging time, the union of artists is essential. Leiloglou commented how artists have a sort of responsibility to support one another so that they can be empowered to wrestle with creating and interpreting art.
“I’m definitely not in favor of creatives using AI. Which is interesting because so often it is actually artists who are willing to use AI in fields not their own. There’s a weird kind of hypocrisy around it,” Leiloglou said “Like poets and authors might be willing to have AI create the book covers for them or illustrations, whereas, painters would never use AI to make art like that, but they would totally use it to maybe make a piece of music to accompany their art, or write a blurb for them. And I think that kind of thing really needs to go if artists are gonna be able to support one another. There’s kind of like an internal back and forth there. For the arts to thrive in any way, shape or form, I think AI needs to be totally removed from it.”
Whether their mediums of art differ, they are still creating for the same God and through Him. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
WHAT CAN WE DO?
The possibility of AI use decreasing in our society is unlikely, and its growth continues to be overwhelming. George recognizes that during this time, it’s helpful to engage in fruitful conversations about AI with others, allowing one to gain a necessary sense of discernment.
“…I think if we have conversations with each other regularly about how this threatens our humanity and our spiritual well being, we notice increasingly that this is something that threatens something real about who we are as humans,” George said.
Engaging in conversations will also remind Christians of the purpose of why God has given His people creative abilities, which is to worship and glorify Him. And when one uses AI instead of their abilities, it takes away from the true worship for God that is found within art.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies- in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 4:10-11)
While God does not call everyone to the arts, we all have the ability to create and support other creators. We all are aware of the AI culture we are living in, the fear that people have of losing their jobs or of AI taking the place of the gifts that God has given His people. So what is a better opportunity than now to support fellow Christian creators and take enjoyment in what they are creating?
Biola houses one of the top Christian film schools in our nation along with music, theater and art programs, and many other opportunities to support other Christians in their creative endeavors. So take those opportunities and support the creators on your own campus! When you support the art of Christians, you are also doing a favor for yourself by feeding your soul with the art that God intended to be created.
“I do think rightly loving this Christian community that we’re placed in involves investing in the artists around us. Like we can’t complain the arts are suffering, and then go use AI to make an album. That’s why it’s suffering,” Leiloglou said. “… I think Chrisitan art, or really just human art, all beauty of that sort, flows directly from God, and thus that ability to nourish the soul, to make you a deeper, more well rounded, wiser, kinder human being. And I think you need people for that, people to create and people to invest in.”
