Bishop Steven was one of five speakers at the AI All-Party Parliamentary Group which discussed AI and our spiritual and cultural lives, on 2 December.
It’s an honour to give evidence in this forum and on this question. I’m seeking in this evidence to address the spiritual dimensions of the question. I take as a given that AI is a broad and non-specific collective term for the revolution in technology we are living through globally and embraces social media; narrow AI; generative AI and the more speculative general AI which might be said to imitate human intelligence
As Bishop of Oxford, it’s my role to oversee the Church of England across the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. We are a community of over 800 parish churches; around 300 schools and over 120 chaplaincies to every sector of society. I try and lead for the Bishops in the Lords on technology, AI and online safety. I am also co-chair of the Anglican Communion’s science commission which aims to help the Anglican church across the world engage more confidently with science.
On 14 June this year Pope Francis addressed the G7 in Puglia in Italy. The theme of his address is the effects of artificial intelligence on the future of humanity. It’s interesting that the Pope chose this topic above all other topics for an address to the most powerful politicians in the world.
The burden of what I want to say this afternoon is captured by a combination of the text of the address and the video of the Pope’s arrival at the G7. The address is balanced. The address highlights the benefits of AI and stresses that AI is itself a product of human ingenuity and God given talents. AI is a powerful tool with huge potential benefits but also significant risks and dangers.
But what Pope Francis said needs to be understood in the light of what Pope Francis did. He came in person to Puglia despite ill health. He enters the conference room and moves in turn around the G7 leaders. He greets each one in turn with love and respect and affection. He embraces several. There is deep humanity and understanding in each encounter, deep compassion and appreciation of the burdens carried by those in leadership. The G7 leaders are not encountering an algorithm nor a set of ideas nor just some useful advice. The G7 are meeting a person – and a model of how faith communities can engage well with questions of technology.
The Church like all faith communities needs to engage with an everchanging world of technology. The Church needs humility and help to navigate this change well. But there is no doubt in my own mind about character of our engagement. In our engagement with technology when faced with a choice the Church needs always to turn towards human interaction, personal encounter and face to face community.
Christianity is a deeply personal and humane faith. Yesterday was Advent Sunday. We are approaching the great festival of Christmas. At the centre of Christmas is the believe that Almighty God, make of heaven and earth, became a child, born to raise the sons of earth in the words of the carol. There is no greater sign of the worth of the individual person in all of human culture.
The Christian faith is and must be deeply personal, mediated through personal interaction not through technology. Technology for the church can be an excellent servant but a poor master to communicate love and care for all the world. We need to be present with each other. Digital encounters are better than no encounters but there is no substitute for human contact.
Technology has driven significant spiritual change in past centuries. The invention of the printing press in the 16th Century changed the way the population interacted with texts and especially the texts of scripture and the liturgy. This led to a more literate population, a more democratised, less hierarchical spirituality, more willing to challenge authority. According to Tom Holland in Dominion, this shift at the Reformation provides a central driver for the evolution of Western culture.
Technology and AI are currently providing an even greater shift in the way the population access information which brings both opportunities and pitfalls. The Churches and Christians will need time to navigate this well. This could be the work of several generations involving improvisation and experiment and change. During the pandemic we saw a rapid rise in online services. By and large these have fallen away in favour of the local and the personal. Reflections on personal and family responses to AI – digital fasts and sabbaths are slowly beginning to emerge.
The Church needs to navigate technology in terms of its own life and offering guidance to Christians but also has a wider public role.
Faith communities are a vital dialogue partner with civil society in the larger conversation about AI and society. At present this is largely a two way conversation symbolised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s conversation with Elon Musk. But that two way conversation needs to widen to include the interests of citizens, of people. Faith has a key role to play in that widening conversation about what kind of society we need for human flourishing. The Church can be a convenor and contributor to that conversation. The Rome Call on AI Ethics signed in 2020 is one fruit of that dialogue.
The Church and other world faiths bring a global, international perspective and especially a global south perspective to debates on technology. I was present two weeks ago at a global gathering of lead science bishops from 22 Provinces of the Anglican Communion – the majority from the global South. The Church brings a passionate concern for justice – for the fruits of new technologies to be shared and accountable. The Church brings a concern for human purpose and the role of work in human flourishing not simply as a means to earn money. The Church brings an honest appraisal of human weakness, error and tendency to wickedness to inform the work of regulators and developers which contrasts with the naïve libertarianism of some technology companies. The Church can help create and sustain communities of resistance in terms of critical use of technology.
All of the faith communities have wisdom and insight to share on what makes for a good life and death, on confronting suffering, on a good society and on the role of technology. My request to government and Parliament is to give due regard to these insights, be aware of where our society’s values have come from and engage fruitfully with this vital area for human flourishing and for society.
