Exploring AI & Creativity within Creative Ministry

Powerful tool
Styles hard to replicate are opened up
Unique fusions
Iterative cycle possibly more robust
Rapid prototyping & experimentation
Quality
Innately utilizing the knowledge from various fields
Value (still in question but currently is valued in culture)
Process Statistics at scale
Synthesize meeting notes.
Help broaden perspectives/spectrums of solutions
Help in efficiency where efficiency is needed (but this should be weighed wisely)
Be used to help sharpen or expand
Reduce human error (potentially)
Constant availability
Assistance
Perform repetitive jobs
Fast decision making
Identify patterns
Editor
Potential to create stock imagery
Could encourage creativity from different angles

Don't be passive in using it.
Be thoughtful / strategic / prayerful.
Be rooted in Jesus to shape your perspective.
Be proactive: Look for the overlooked & blindspots.
Don't overdepend on pattern recognition/surface appearance (Defeat of Ai - Joshua 8:6-8)
Good intentions aren't the only thing that matters. (Uzzah)
Risks making creativity a commodity and simply utilitarian.
Risks creative atrophy, desensitizing, decreased morale
Unknowns: It's not fully understood, story still being written
It's a multiplying tool (for good and bad)
While It's been the fastest adoption of a new tech in history, people have mixed emotions/opinions.
Risks Plagiarism/exploitation or valuing product over people
Risks Unemployment

Letting it captivate/distract you from reality/priorites
Callousness toward people's plight
Shortcut to relationship
Born from coveting what someone else has
To make it a god (to praise, to determine identity and where to go, to give power)
Replacing abiding or inquiring God
Isolating
Turn a blind eye to ethical problems
Underestimate cost of implementation
Manipulation / Control
Ignore that it's not transparent (ex. not always intentional but result of scale...potentially problematic)
Ignore that with ai power inside tech giants could become centralized (monopoly)
Not verifying truth / blind reliance / laziness
Ignoring bias
Letting it be an object of lust (power, people, things)
Addictive
Create unnecessary fear

Al struggles to detect/express intangibles (the love of God shown through service, reconciliation).
Can't experience real world in the real human sense (ex. Personal nostalgia, emotional impact...though it could parrot it)
Can't be a moral agent or have true emotion.
No soul
Doesn't have the Holy Spirit (though I'm sure God could speak through it like he did a donkey)
No belief (atleast in a real sense)
No faith
No singular reference point
Al doesn't comprehend what happens in the pause (what is generated in people when they wait on the Lord, for example).
No unique fingerprint

Authenticity
Remember better when we create (ex. Feelings of nostalgia, stories, guiding life lessons we meditate on)
Create parable rooted in deep context and meaning.
Dwelling in substance of awe (sense of beholding)
Spirit of God at work through spiritual gifts
Prophetic words
Worship process
Cultivate hearts toward connection with God
Authentic warmth
When you are around someone's sacrifice vs. computer generated idea/execution, there tends to be an internal invisible quality to it.
We communicate "I see you" vs. "I read your stats"
Can spur on other creative born from sacrifice
Can be a truly communal experience.
It innately requires faith.
Self gets expressed vs. just iteration of algorithms.
Fingerprints

WHAT DO ARTIST DO?

Create a window to see and interpret life
Look for meaning and beauty
Bring order to resonating thoughts and express through style & medium in ways that communicate
Create rootedness within environment vs. simply decoration
Communicate complex thoughts through a singular vision to invite a new or deeper way to see.
Develop symbols to reflect identity (creates familiarity and safety, embodies character)
Create to glorify God
Show value
Art we create resonates with us because of the journey marking chapters we sing/view again in future seasons.
Can serve as both a universal and deeply personal in speaking to someone in specific context.
Art tends to value resonating over surface relevancy (whether to them, God, or to others...they aren't against relevancy but resonating means connection).

What's my motivation for pursuing using Al in this?
Have I/we inquired God?
Who is doing the thinking, leading, heart work?
What does faith look like?
What am I called to do? (How would Al help or hinder that?)
What do we want graphics and resources to do?
What are the potential blindspots or dangers to me or others in using this?
What's accountability (even ethically) look like in this?
How can I be a faithful minister of the gospel with this tool?
How can I shepherd others in this?
How am I maturing through this process?
How could Al be shaping me?
How are spiritual gifts operating together within our community leaning into our calling as we use Al?

How is the Spirit involved?
How is it changing our sensibilities in good or negative ways?
Is Al helping us be more experimental and innovative or does it develop insatiable appetite like porn disconnected from reality?
How do we perceive what is real?
What's missing when generated quickly (instant gratification)?
How does it impact our capacity to experience value?
What marks a creative vs. thoughtful person?
What does human flourishing look like (different than self-indulgence)?
What is the role and value of an artist?
What is a prophetic voice inside a generation or even interpersonally in communication?
How are core transformational connections created as a people? How can Al help or hinder that?
What gives meaning, anchor points, and reference?
What is true worship?
What is the church's role?
What does development (and ministry development) look like in these waters?
What helps us see or what could obscure our vision?

SYNTHESIS: Using Chat GPT to help synthesize research, explore counterpoints to help sharpen how we communicate, create new lanes to research, compile diverse avenues to explore during prep can be helpful.
BRAINSTORM: Using different visual Ai platforms to explore unique fusions, cross fusions, rare elements, allows us to surface more possibilities that can be helpful in creative discussions.
RESTRAINT: For a project, ethically, I'm choosing not to put names of live artists to copy styles so specifically because the impact on artists. I also am choosing to pray before using tools (not just Al).
REPURPOSE: Use Ai to help repackage existing content that is already ministering to folks in creative ways.
DIG DEEPER: By using Al, you begin to see its possibilities and limitations. That helps sharpen how we can dig deeper to engage folks well.

Charla DixonJune 8, 2024