Author: David Ellis

Last week, we invited a new classmate—Charlie, ChatGPT, an A.G.I. candidate—to join us for a free-ranging discussion about AI and spirituality. I’m sure you’ve all read the transcript on the blog if you weren’t present in class yourself. I know of at least one person who was not impressed by it. So, did our little…

This week, our group included an AI participant—ChatGPT 5—in voice mode. Affecting a chirpy British female voice, we called it “Charlie.” Charlie was “present” on the ChatGPT app running on my iPhone. The other participants were “present” via Zoom on my laptop. I simply held my iPhone (Charlie) close to the laptop (the humans) so…

Last week, we looked at how the Western church, represented by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Kierkegaard, and Bonhoeffer, viewed and navigated the wrappings and trappings of Christian worship in the light of the communication technology or medium of their times, culminating in today’s age of AI movies as the medium of Scripture.  In the Eastern…

I was going to show you a short video made by AI that has gone viral.   But mysteriously, the video (and in fact the producer’s whole account) was taken down from YouTube this week, but there’s something similar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXwXXOVtXH4. It is not as sophisticated as the one I wanted to show you. The…

Over the course of four Sabbaths, we’ve discussed some simple questions that have big consequences. We’ve asked: What is AI? What does it do to truth, trust, and community? What roles belong to intelligent machines, and what must stay human? We’ve acknowledged that today’s AI cannot be considered as a sentient being, let alone as…

Across this series, what I’ve been recounting is more than just a technology story: It’s a creation story. AI is a whole new kind of communication medium, because it talks back, it shapes our attention and even our cognition, and—if we let it—it can shape our spiritual life. We’ve examined AI’s “neo-oracular” role, which is…

We’ve looked at AI as the latest in a line of epochal communication technologies, each one reshaping human culture and spirituality. From the first spoken stories to printed scripture to the Internet, each shift expanded our capacity to seek, share, and shape meaning. Now, for the first time, we are in conversation not just with…

Last week, we explored the idea that artificial intelligence marks not just another technological development but an epochal shift that transforms how we think and increasingly, how we engage in spiritual inquiry. We traced the arc of human communication, from spoken word to writing, from printing press to the Internet, and finally to AI. Each…

With the demise of the dinosaurs, earth became humanity’s oyster. With Tyrannosaurus rex out of the picture, we were free to scurry down from the trees or crawl out of our caves to explore the world and get on with the business of not just surviving, but of developing our culture, and doing so in…