Jason Thacker Episode — Beatrice Institute

In April of 2019, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention published a document called “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles.” Armed with the belief that God has created humans with both the ability to invent new technologies and the wisdom to answer new dilemmas those technologies raise, the document outlined basic principles to guide a Christian ethical approach to advances in AI. In a cultural moment when many Christian voices express anxiety over the effects of the digital world on faith, community, and identity, the tone of this document was one of hope, acknowledging the dangers of advances in technology while professing that “nothing we create will be able to thwart [God’s] redemptive plan for creation.”

In this episode, Jason Thacker, lead drafter of the document and director of the Research Institute for the ERLC, further explores the intersection of theology and digital technology with Gretchen. Together they consider the meaning of discipleship in the 21st century, the ways that our identity is (and isn’t) formed by technological advances, and the “big” questions that underlie ethical issues relating to data privacy, digital surveillance, and more. Jason seeks to help root the Church’s approach to AI in a posture of wakefulness and hope, alert to the impact of timeless questions on current issues and equipped to engage with them as members of a digital age.

The statement was “intentionally designed to have a really long shelf life,” focusing not on specific technological advancements, but on the “core beliefs and elements that are going to drive all of these advancements and how we think about them”
The field of public theology often focuses on the relationship between church and state, but it also has other societal applications, such as how Christians ought to engage in the technology industry
“Technology isn't really causing us to ask new questions of humanity per se, but [to] ask age-old questions in light of new opportunities. A lot of the core questions behind the questions that we're asking right now are the same questions that humanity has asked from the very beginning of time.”
The three “big” questions: Is there a God? What is he like? What does it mean to be human (including the meaning of human dignity and being created in God’s image)?
We assume the presence of technology in our lives without asking what it really is, which shapes the way we relate to it
We need the “meta-questions” about what technology is and what it means to be human in order to understand how to approach ethical questions
We often conflate innovations in technology with innovations in humanity
To misunderstand what it means to be human is to misunderstand God (because we’re made in his image), and to misunderstand both technology and how we ought to live in society together.
“Your value, dignity, and worth is not based on what you do. It's not based on what you contribute. [...] It's based solely on how God has made you. And that revolutionizes the way we approach ethics, the way we approach morality, and the way we approach a lot of the pressing issues of the day.”
Discipleship in the 21st century vs the 1st century: both ask what it means to be human and how we ought to interact with those around us, even if the contexts differ
Jason’s new book written to “open the eyes” of everyday readers to the ways in which living in a digital age shapes and forms us, and to provide a framework for talking about those issues
Pressing discipleship issues of the current moment: living in a society that doesn’t believe in truth; deep division; how the messages we see shape our perception of ourselves and others.
“We assume that this is it, the digital age, the pinnacle; but if history keeps moving forward there will be other technological ages with their own challenges”
Ethics is for everyday life, not just for the learned or leaders; all of us make moral and ethical decisions each day, consciously or not
We spend far more time with and on our smartphones than we do in church, reading the Bible, etc; we are being “discipled” by technology
Four ethical issues that impact our use of technology: content moderation, fake news, digital surveillance and digital authoritarianism
Content moderation and free speech matters to discipleship because the information we see shapes us and causes us to be a certain type of person
Surveillance and digital authoritarianism matters to discipleship because the data that is collected on us is used to tailor what we see, which then further shapes us as persons
Chinese oppression of Uighur Muslims “happened on the back of technology”: facial recognition, firewalls, data collection, and content moderation to control all have been involved in state repression
We impute to AI the powers that God has; but God never abuses those powers in the way humans do
Albert Mohler argues that the Church needs to take technology seriously as having a theological impact on our everyday lives
Jaccues Ellul argues that technology is not a neutral tool, but something that shapes you
Both technological determinism (the belief that technology shapes you to such an extent that you have no agency) and instrumentalism (technology is completely neutral and doesn’t impact its users) have elements of truth in them
Despite the “doomsday” scenarios that are imagined in conversations about AI, as Christians, “we’re not a fearful people … we’re a hopeful people, because the end of the story has already been written.”
“Humanity isn't in need of an upgrade in order to face the world around us. We're created in God's image; we're fully capable and equipped and accountable to do the work that God has set before us. And we do so from a place of hope.”