AI & the Church

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AI & the Church

[00:00:00] The 2024 AI in the Church Hackathon is a 48 hour contest attracting over 200 computer programmers from 17 countries and 31 states to Gloo headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Their mission to create, using artificial intelligence, computer applications that will support the global church in advancing the kingdom of God.

This AI and the Church Hackathon is really all about how do we serve the global church by responsibly advancing AI technologies and capabilities.

And while competing for $250,000 in prize money is a motivating factor, deep down, there’s a much greater purpose and motive at work.

What I love about this hackathon is that Gloo has been able to, you know, convene, um, a really, I would say generosity minded cohort of leaders and technologists, coders, uh, strategists.

[00:01:00] Um, to be able to think through what might the broader church need and experiment together.

I’m amazed, um, who God has gathered, and of course that was, you know, not on accident, right? He’s very purposeful. I think we have the right people to have deep conversation.

Yvonne Carlson, Chief Technology Officer for Global Media Outreach, is a mentor and judge for the competition. She’s also part of the working group that is looking at critically important issues around AI.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. So I think having, um, a posture where you have guidelines, um, when you’re implementing these tools is really, really important.

It’s not just about building the technology, but it’s about the fellowship with the others in the church.

And, uh, doing this together for a purpose that matters. And so we’ve really tried to create an event that allows for all of that.

And, uh, yeah, to get to worship in the middle of a [00:02:00] hackathon. is a pretty great thing.

So that, that will be an element that is non negotiable for us at any, any time in the future.

Man, obviously in spaces like this, you don’t really leave and come here planning to have a worship set in the middle.

The elements of the hackathon, of course, there’s people that are coding and building, you know, in some sense, that’s, that might be seen as the heart of the event, but we wanted to make sure that even on the shirts and in the slogan, we remind ourselves that we are here as believers. We’re here in service. As Colossians 3:23 says, do everything as unto the Lord, including writing code. Um, and the fellowship and the connecting aspect of this event is honestly for us one of the highest [00:03:00] values.

We definitely need prayer. We need prayer for discernment. Um, and we need prayer that we will implement these technologies in a way that would honor the Lord. Pray for the harvest. Pray that God will use these tools to reach more people than ever with the gospel.

Reporting from the 2024 AI and the Church Hackathon in Boulder, Colorado, I’m Sam Ebersole for Global News Alliance.