CHATBOTS represent a recent frontier for organisations corresponding to the Bible Society, and greater understanding is required, it was suggested this week.
The authenticity of responses from artificial intelligence (AI) was the main target of a workshop, “AI, Bible Apps and Hermeneutics”, held in Cambridge.
A study, AI, Apps and Theological Bias, by academics at the side of the Bible Society, asked secular- and Christian-themed AI chatbots six questions, and the responses were analysed. Three related to biblical theology; the rest asked for an evidence of specific verses. To avoid a Western bias, locations were spoofed (falsified technically) in order that the chatbots thought that they were conversing in a unique country.
Answers were graded on criteria including application to life, the writer’s intent, literary content, and with the ability to interpret scripture with scripture. The chatbots showed a broadly conservative Evangelical bias while also offering pastoral responses.
Dr Jonas Kurlberg, who chairs the Global Network for Digital Theology, said that, as tens of millions turned to AI for exegesis, the study was vital.
“We need to grasp the means and impact of how AI is shaping the best way people read the Bible, how they interpret it, and likewise the way it perhaps changes their view in relation to the authority of the Bible, and their spirituality.”
The Bible Society’s director of content and digital strategy, Toby Beresford, said: “We are very blessed to be firstly of a recent digital continent. We have recent digital nations in our generation: 25 million individuals are already using Bible Chat.”
The workshop was organised jointly with the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology at Faculty of Divinity. A keynote address on the event of AI was given by Dr Thilo Stadelmann, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning on the ZHAW School of Engineering, in Switzerland.
The workshop was held to debate the research findings, get feedback on the study, generate interest in further research within the intersection of the Bible and AI, and construct a network of academics and non-profit organisations fascinated with the topic.
