A June 5, 2023 YouTube monologue by Justin R. Lester (Made for Mondays) that explores how Christian love ethics can guide development and use of artificial intelligence. Lester defines AI briefly, then presents five Christian-centered principles—human dignity, justice, accountability, compassion, and humility—to ensure AI promotes human flourishing rather than exacerbating harms. The video includes a short promotional mention of the speaker's book and ends with affirmations and encouragement.
Chapters
Welcome to Made for Mondays. It is June 5th and you're tuned in on your radio dial to Made for Mondays with Justin Lister. I'm so glad you're here with us today as we continue our journey in talking about artificial intelligence and today about a Christian love ethic. One of the biggest questions I've gotten is what does it means to merge ethics and artificial intelligence? In this case Christian love ethics? Let's talk about it. I think you're gonna like this one today as we engage and I hope this is helpful because remember, you were Made for Mondays. Mondays don't own you, you own your Mondays. Let's jump into our time together.
Well, hey, Made for Mondays listeners. Justin here. I'm on here to give a shameless plug about. Well, my book, I wrote a book called Necessary Endings. This book is simply a book detailing. It's called Some Things need to Die for your To Live. It details four different funerals that I believe you need to have to go on a journey of mental well being and mental success. I pray that you take a moment to go ahead and grab it. You can grab it on my website@jrlester.com or on Amazon. It's a book that addresses mental faith journeys, relationships, friendships, everything in between. Prayerfully, it'll help you be all that you need to be everything God's called you to be. So go ahead, take a copy of Necessary Endings. Some Things need to die for you to live. Available on Amazon or jr lester.com thank you.
Welcome back. Let's do this. So how do we keep a Christian love ethic with artificial intelligence? Let's remember, what is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that focuses on creating machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as learning, problem solving and decision making. AI systems use algorithms and statistical models to analyze large amounts of data, recognize patterns and make predictions of that of those decisions based on data. So what about Christian love ethics? Well, check this out. I was talking to someone who works at Google. I said to them, I said, what about ethics and AI? And they laughed and they said, what about ethics and politics? They said, justin, we talk, we want ethics in something that we've created and we're sinners. So we really have to consider so much more than trying to dress up artificial intelligence. So I was trying to think through taking the story of Jesus, merging it together to write something on Christian love ethics and artificial intelligence. So let's think through this. Keeping a Christian love ethic with artificial intelligence requires us to consider how AI aligns with values of Jesus, love, compassion and justice. That's at the heart of Christian ethics. Here's some principles to keep in mind, so let's merge this together. Number one is human dignity. As Christians, we believe that all human beings are created in the image of God and have an inherent dignity and worth. So when developing artificial intelligence, let's ensure that it respects and upholds dignity rather than treating people as mere data and objects to be analyzed the first way. That's then, number two, what's another lane of Christian love ethics? Number two, justice. The biblical concept of justice emphasizes fairness, equality and the protection of the vulnerable. Right? The least lost, left out, left behind, therefore. So in artificial intelligence, I think the opportunity is to promote those values rather than perpetuating or exacerbating existing inequalities and bias. That means learning about this, understanding it, and diving into the deep end on it. Number three is accountability. That's in Christian love ethics. So as creators of AI, you, I, when we use chat, GPT, when we use OpenAI, have a responsibility to ensure that it's being used ethically and for the benefit of all. That requires transparency, accountability and ongoing evaluation of our ethical implications. When we use artificial intelligence, it's not the creators, it's us. How are we using it? Because we're the ones assisting the code being written. This is what makes it different. Number four, compassion. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and show compassion to those who are suffering. So when we're developing and using artificial intelligence, we should consider it how we can use it to promote human flourishing and alleviate suffering. How can we utilize AI to make the things or to build the things, or the websites or the opportunities to promote human flourishing and get rid of suffering. Number five is humility. We should approach the development and the use of artificial intelligence with humility, recognizing that our knowledge and understanding is limited and we cannot fully anticipate all of the ethical implications in the use of AI. That means it's ongoing dialogue, ongoing reflection, and a willingness to listen to diverse perspectives and feedback and then apply it. Listen, AI is here, Arkansas is here. We can fight about it, or we can ensure that Jesus is the driving force behind it. Human dignity, justice, accountability, compassion and humility. Keeping this in mind, we can use AI in ways that are consistent with the Christian love ethic that promotes human flourishing to all people in God's creation. I've said this before. Jesus is not surprised by this, so let's lean into his knowledge. The future is a memory to God. So I'VE read the end of the story. It's going to be okay. Let's say our affirmations together. Repeat after me. Say, I am me. I can be me. No one's going to stop me from being me. Have an amazing Monday. You were made for this. Own your Mondays, because Mondays don't own you. Have an amazing day.
