Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

• Mark 9:38-41

A few weeks ago, I was in the Sunday school classroom, the church’s chapel, and I had prepared for the class, but the early service had not finished yet.

I enjoy listening to posts that I have written.  In hearing the computer read it back to me, I can find typos easier.  If it just does not sound right, something might be wrong.

But instead of getting my latest post read to me over the phone, I got an “AI Playback, powered by Chrome.”  It was an on-the-spot synopsis of my post.

I was irritated.  I wanted to hear what I wrote, not what Artificial Intelligence thought the summary of my post should be.

But then I realized that the computer was something without a soul and absolutely no sense of humor.  If AI could reach the main point of what I had written, maybe other people were getting that point too.

The strange thing is that the Bible Studies and Vesper services seem to boggle the “mind” of AI.  The playback is simply the structure without delving into what was said.  And the “mysteries”, at least most of them, revert to the word-for-word playback, what I wanted that Sunday morning.

But most of the time, I get two voices, one male and one female.  They make the point, and then one might say, “but it is not that easy” and they mention the counterpoint or the exception.  Or they mention that when you go deeper, you find out something else.  They even use expressions, on a rare occasion, that I did not use.

So, where I cannot listen to what I wrote, I get confirmation that the post should be understood.

Warning, my Sunday morning “Stinker Sunday School Lessons” give the point of the lesson clearly, but all the humor is filtered out.  AI absolutely has no sense of humor, but the point is understood.

And AI, without a soul, gets how we should deal with this or that.  But how this or that affects our soul?  Not so much.  The morality it understands, but not the heart.

And on rare occasions, the AI playback misses the point entirely.  Was I being too playful with the humor?  Did I circle around the point without really making it?  Or was it a spiritual point, beyond the capability of AI to understand?

So, if you have an Android phone with Google Chrome, try the “listen to this post” feature, and see if AI can summarize what was written.  It is a tool.  It has its limitations.  Never think it is a real person giving their ideas.

But as Jesus told John, if they are not against us they are for us.  This AI playback tool is another method of giving a sanity check in what we write.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.