No, AI cannot replace human evangelization

I had a grand ol’ time earlier this week speaking with Morning Air’s John Morales about the question: can AI replace human evangelization? My answer: no! Though not without a few laughs on the way, contemplating the pros and cons of farming out Catholic communications to a robot. You can listen to the conversation here.

Interestingly, this week I then came across two instances where the Church is embracing, at least partially, AI. The first is that The Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis’ annual peace message for 2024 will focus on AI:

The Vatican office noted that artificial intelligence technologies are having “a rapidly increasing impact on human activity, personal and social life, politics and the economy” and called for vigilance to ensure that technological development contributes to “the promotion of justice and peace in the world.”

Indeed.

Pope Francis has repeatedly called for making “the intrinsic dignity of every man and every woman the key criterion in evaluating emerging technologies.”

And that’s just it, isn’t it? “The intrinsic dignity of every man and every woman” is the central basis for any decision if you are a Catholic (and it should be that way for everyone, but then of course men are not angels).

Then later I saw the Catholic Media Association, of which I am a member, is hosting an AI training for PR and communications professionals. It seems geared less toward creative writing, though I see learning how to use AI for “content creation.” Overall it seems focused on helping communications professionals streamline processes. Makes sense. But it all feels like a slippery slope, doesn’t it?

My bottom line is: I don’t like it because it’s artificial. As we talked about in the interview, I don’t see AI really bringing out anyone’s virtues, especially if you are actively using it to create for you, as opposed to using it to enhance your search engine or something administrative. And there’s so much artificial about our world already! Do we need more in our own apostolates, when so much of our world is anti-human? And I can’t see AI as anything other than fundamentally anti-human. I’m sure that’s a hot take.

As I say in the interview, it is feels far nicer - more human - to hold hands with a fellow human, than a robot - at least for now. And because what the human heart desires will never change, we run the risk of forcing human behavior to choose AI for the sake of convenience, and not because it is what is good for us. Shortcuts, artificial reality, fake relationships, no real love, lack of hardship that makes us grow, change, or learn. I wouldn’t dream of setting up an AI system to write my blog posts for me. Why bother writing, at all? Why lie to the public? Why separate yourself from the Holy Spirit, by whom all communication is inspired, anyway? Why shortchange yourself a chance to be real?

And on an incredibly relevant note, as I wrote this post, I came across this quote from the English writer and artist John Ruskin:

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."