September

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September 2023 Issue

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Editorial

From Gutenberg to GPT:

Jonathan Walter

Kodak was once a dominant force in the photography industry. Throughout the twentieth century, the company was synonymous with film photography, commanding a staggering 90 percent of the American film market. However, change was brewing within its own walls. In 1975, a Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera.1 This groundbreaking device, which could capture black-and-white images at a resolution of 0.01 megapixels, represented a significant… Continue reading...

Ministry and artificial intelligence: cover image

Ministry and artificial intelligence: The new frontier

Eric Louw

Whether used for communication, navigation, research, entertainment, or social media, many of us cannot imagine living in the twenty-first century without the internet. Yet the explosive growth in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has the potential to have…

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Divinity and datasets cover image

Divinity and datasets

Daryl Gungadoo

In 1953, renowned children’s book author Roald Dahl penned a short story titled “The Great Automatic Grammatizator.” Remarkably, his narrative appeared to predict the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which has now become one of the most rapidly…

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Shepherding with silicon cover image

Shepherding with silicon

Damian Chambers

ChatGPT—the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that is producing not only humanlike conversations but also humanlike intellectual output—has generated a lot of interest in the topic of AI since it was launched in November 2022. ChatGPT can write sermons—and good…

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Church in the age of algorithms and AI: cover image

Church in the age of algorithms and AI: Opportunity or minefield?

Sam Neves

Humanity has always derived its perception of competence from a person’s ability to articulate cohesive thoughts. In other words, the more clear, nuanced, and logical someone’s language is, the more competent we perceive them to be. The same applies to empathy. Our…

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An AI devotional: The unshakable foundation—delving into Colossians 1 cover image

An AI devotional: The unshakable foundation—delving into Colossians 1

ChatGPT

Note: This article has not been edited in any way and is the response to the below prompt. Prompt: Write an inspiring, practical, exegetical, and insightful devotional article based on Colossians 1 with three main points. Include relevant references to other passages…

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Resources

The Robot Will See You Now: Artificial Intelligence and the Christian Faith

Alyssa Truman

The Robot Will See You Now is a collaborative exploration of the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence (AI). As technology races forward, this book emerges as a vital guide for believers in general and pastors in particular navigating this new landscape. The book is divided into three sections, each dissecting a different facet of the AI-Christianity interface. The first part attempts to paint a broad picture of AI’s current state and potential future,… Continue reading...

Dateline

Religious news from around the world

Photo: South American Division News Preaching the gospel in times of artificial intelligence Columbia, Maryland, United States Seventh-day Adventist Church communications leaders from the three major regions of the Americas—North, Central, and South America—met for a few days to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and its intersections with the Adventist mission of preaching the gospel to the world. Lectures, debates, and panels led participants to conclude… Continue reading...

Pastor’s Pastor

How to acquire supernatural intelligence (SI)

Ramon J. Canals

I was captivated by the stunning flower arrangements in the home I was visiting. Their beauty and lifelike appearance compelled me to commend the homeowners. However, my initial admiration was tempered upon learning that the flowers were artificial. Despite their artificiality, they enhanced the ambiance of the house, beautifully blending in with its decor. It struck me then that we increasingly inhabit a world filled with artificiality. The range runs wide, from… Continue reading...

Practical Pointers

Potential AI tools for pastors

John Feezer IV

Have you heard the buzz about recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and wondered how AI could be helpful to you? In this feature, we introduce some AI tools that you may find useful. There are hundreds of new ones being released each week. The authors featured in this issue presented some of these tools to our team, while we discovered others. We must note that these tools may produce inaccurate or offensive content. We list them as tools for you to… Continue reading...