Mid-Week Message - June 11

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!

If you were in church on Sunday (either in-person or virtual), you may have sensed that I have some concerns with the proliferation of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the world right now.

As I scroll through Facebook, it is filled with images that were created with AI (I don't have the art-language to describe them, but they are instantly recognizable by their style), and long chunks of text that were written by AI. (Any time I see a multi-paragraph post from a page or person that i don't know, I usually assume that it was written by AI unless I can prove otherwise... and I am someone who often posts multi-paragraph Facebook posts!)

And Google searches have also been taken over by generative AI - if you search anything on Google, the first result is almost always Google's AI synthesis of the search results. (There is a way to turn it off - when you do your Google search, put -ai at the end of your search. For example, you can write: "how many hairs are on a human head -ai" The other way to turn off Google's AI is by including a swear word in your search, but that can sometimes give you... interesting... results, so I recommend the -ai option for turning it off!)

So why, as followers of Jesus, should we be concerned about generative AI? I've got a number of reasons!

1) We are called to be caretakers or stewards of creation, and generative AI uses a huge amount of power and water. A recent report from the UN showed that in 2025, data centres (the infrastructure that supports AI) used 4.5 trillion litres of water, an amount too big for my brain to visualize, and consumed enoungh electricity to power the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa (1.3 billion people) for more than 2 1/2 years. The carbon footprint was 189 million tonnes of CO2e, which might be offset by planting 3.2 billion seedlings and growing them for 10 years. Yikes! 

2) As I said on Sunday, Jesus calls us to be fully human - embracing human creativity, human vulnerability, and being in relationship with the humans around us.  AI will never be human; AI can never know what it is to love, or to be loved; AI can not create (so-called "generative" AI, whether it is text or images, only does so by synthesizing the information, writing and images, that it gleans from the internet).

3) This leads into my third concern, which is an ethical concern. AI steals from artists - from visual artists and from writers. All AI programs are trained using all of the text and all of the images from the internet, then digitally chops it up and reconfigures it without giving credit to the original artist/author. (There was a lawsuit last year where a group of authors successfully sued an AI company when they proved that the company downloaded their books to train Claude, one generative AI system.)

4) My fourth concern is also an ethical concern, and it has to do with AI amplifying some of the awful messaging that is present in the world and on the internet.  Author Ruha Benjamin has done some work showing how AI can amplify racist messaging, even before the advent of generative AI, and the implications for the safety of people of colour. And just last week, I saw an explanation of how the same thing is happening for misogynistic (anti-woman) messaging. Basically, AI amplifies messaging that is already present, and if that messaging is racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic etc, AI will shape the world to become even more this way.

5) Any information that we get from AI should be double-checked with other sources rather than trusted implicitly. Most AI systems have been programmed such that "I don't know" isn't a possible answer. If there is no answer, it will make up an answer. And if there is contradictory answers, it will choose one even if it isn't the correct answer. (With Chat GPT, you can even test this out. After it answers your question, you can then ask it, "What is incorrect in the previous answer?" and it will tell you. So not only will AI lie to you, but it knows that it is lying to you!)

So what does this mean? Should we stop using AI altogether? There are also some very good use-cases for AI - one of the most compelling argument I've heard was the ability for AI to assist people with learning disabilities to take in long texts. But we should be aware of the ethical implications of AI, and use it thoughtfully rather than mindlessly.

The Theology committee of the United Church of Canada is currently working on a theological statement about AI, and ethical considerations for the use of AI in churches, but that report likely won't be available for a couple of years. I was talking with some Session members last week, and we were wondering if this is a conversation that we want to have as a pastoral charge, so that we can come up with some "in-house" ethical guidelines for how we want to use AI as Two Rivers Pastoral Charge. I'd be interested in hearing from you if this is a conversation that you would be interested in being a part of!

And to end on a lighter note, here is a short (comedic) video about AI that my sister shared yesterday, showing both the water use and the questionable veracity of the results that it spits out.

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday - this is different than most weeks, so you will want to make note! This Sunday, we are celebrating our very own Elaine Elkin, and everything that she contributed to our Pastoral Charge in the 11 years she served as our Office Administrator. All three of our churches will be gathering together for one worship service that will be held at 11:15 at Westfield United Church (133 Nerepis Rd.). Long Reach and Summerville folks - can you please help me out by making sure that this message reaches people who many not read this email? And carpooling is very much encouraged for those of you coming from the Peninsula!

• Potluck Lunch - this shared worship service will be followed by a potluck lunch. I mentioned on Sunday that this is a chance for everyone to sample the favourite potluck dishes of members of the other churches in our pastoral charge. (I joked that it wasn't a competition, but head's up that Joanne L. at Westfield answered back, "Oh yes it is!") As you are planning what to bring, I'll also let you know that the Westfield UCW is going to be providing a cake.

• Shifting in to Summer - as we move into the summer season, many of our regular activities are on hold until September - Wednesday bible study, Asking the Big Questions, regular committee meetings. We will begin our weekly movie nights in the parlour at Westifeld United Church - Tuesdays at 7pm, beginning on July 7.

• Vacation - I am going to be on vacation for the next two weeks, June 15-28. Session has made arrangements for pulpit supply for the two Sundays that I will be away, and in case of any pastoral emergencies, you can contact Margaret Stackhouse at 506-xxx-xxxx and she will connect you with the minister who is on-call. (Yes, I have been away a lot this spring. My year goes from July 1 - June 30, so I have been using up my vacation and study leave before the end of the year. After this time away, I will be around more consistently for the next little while!)

Thank You Corner - This week's thank you goes out to Bertis Sutton. If you were at the choir concert last Thursday, you would have heard the inspiring music that he managed to pull out of us, and heard his brilliant piano-playing skills. Thank you, Bertis, for sharing your talent with the church and with the world!

And for a closing thought this week, let me share my current earworm with you! This song takes me back to high school, when those of us who were "band geeks" used to hang out in the music room at lunchtime and after school with access to our music teacher's record collection. (Yes, it was the early 90s - long after records were the common form of music consumption, but long before hipsters made them cool again. We were either decades behind the trend, or decades ahead of the trend!) This song, by Led Zepplin, was on frequent repeat, and for some reason it popped into my brain this week. You can hear it by clicking here!

Blessings to you and yours, today and always; and I'll be sending the next of these mid-week messages in three weeks' time!

Kate.

Rev. Kate Jones Two Rivers Pastoral Charge (506) 757-2201 (office) (506) 343-1307 (mobile) www.tworiverspastoralcharge.com Pronouns:  she/her/hers

"Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: "You must love your neighbour as you love yourself. (Matthew 22:36-39)