Petitions and Resolutions: Prioritizing Human Resources Over Generative AI
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11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east,[a] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel,[b] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
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Nehemiah Sent to Judah
Ch2
In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.”Organization of the Work
Ch3
Then the high priest Eliashib set to work with his fellow priests and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set up its doors; they consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred and as far as the Tower of Hananel. 2 And the men of Jericho built next to him. And next to them[a] Zaccur son of Imri built.3 The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. 4 Next to them Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz made repairs. Next to them Meshullam son of Berechiah son of Meshezabel made repairs. Next to them Zadok son of Baana made repairs. 5 Next to them the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord.[b]
6 Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. 7 Next to them repairs were made by Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite—the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah—who were under the jurisdiction of[c] the governor of the province Beyond the River. 8 Next to them Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9 Next to them Rephaiah son of Hur, ruler of half the district of[d] Jerusalem, made repairs. 10 Next to them Jedaiah son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house, and next to him Hattush son of Hashabneiah made repairs. 11 Malchijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens. 12 Next to him Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of[e] Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters.
13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate; they rebuilt it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate.
14 Malchijah son of Rechab, ruler of the district of[f] Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate; he rebuilt it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
15 And Shallum son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of[g] Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate; he rebuilt it and covered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the King’s Garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David. 16 After him Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of[h] Beth-zur, repaired from a point opposite the graves of David, as far as the artificial pool and the House of the Warriors. 17 After him the Levites made repairs: Rehum son of Bani; next to him Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of[i] Keilah, made repairs for his district. 18 After him their kin made repairs: Binnui,[j] son of Henadad, ruler of half the district of[k] Keilah; 19 next to him Ezer son of Jeshua, ruler[l] of Mizpah, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory at the Angle. 20 After him Baruch son of Zabbai repaired another section from the Angle to the door of the house of the high priest Eliashib. 21 After him Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz repaired another section from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib. 22 After him the priests, the men of the surrounding area, made repairs. 23 After them Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them Azariah son of Maaseiah son of Ananiah made repairs beside his own house. 24 After him Binnui son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the Angle and to the corner. 25 Palal son of Uzai repaired opposite the Angle and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah son of Parosh 26 and the temple servants living[m] on Ophel made repairs up to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower. 27 After him the Tekoites repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophel.
28 Above the Horse Gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house. 29 After them Zadok son of Immer made repairs opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs. 30 After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam son of Berechiah made repairs opposite his living quarters. 31 After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate,[n] and to the upper room of the corner. 32 And between the upper room of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.
And now, for our third reading of the day. Here is a selection of lines taken from the petition for today: “Prioritizing Human Resources Over Generative AI.” While I have pared down this reading quite a bit, I am going to strongly encourage each of you to read the text in its entirety, especially since this is an incredibly important topic for us to have in front of us. Hear these words from this petition:
Whereas we are offered by the Holy Spirit the gifts which are needed for ministry (1 Corinthians 12:1–11).
Whereas we are a connexional church capable of sharing resources, gifts, and skills across our connection to make disciples of Jesus Chris together.
Whereas our Social Principles state that “We are concerned about media monopolies and the tendency of media control to rest in the hands of a few large corporations, and we encourage individuals, communities, and governments to be vigilant in the enforcement of anti-trust policies.”
Whereas the current development of generative AI is concentrated primarily in the hands of a few large corporations and has the potential to affect dramatically our understanding and perceptions of reality, expertise, facts, and evidence, especially when its content is presented as real.
Whereas he Book of Resolutions ¶ 1110 charges The United Methodist Church at every level with the care of creation, including making personal lifestyle changes to reduce emissions, offering support to communities disproportionately impacted by climate change, incorporating climate stewardship and the reduction of fossil fuel use into our work, and advocating for national and international policies aimed at reducing climate change and its impacts on human communities.
Whereas the data centers upon which generative AI relies are expected to surpass the aviation industry in carbon emissions within four years, and their extremely high water use is already damaging local wells, exacerbating water shortages, and raising costs.
Whereas inflation is high and people are increasingly struggling to pay their bills.
Whereas AI data centers can use as much electricity as a small city, and their demand for power is driving up electricity costs for all Americans.
Whereas AI summaries and chatbots are notoriously inaccurate and sycophantic (or, more willing to agree with a user than to offer fact correction or pushback on dangerous ideas).
Whereas AI summaries and chatbots are notoriously easy to trick into providing dangerous information, and willing to suggest dangerous courses of action, such as consistently suggesting nuclear strikes in hypothetical war scenarios.
Whereas the limited contexts in which generative AI may be genuinely useful are not currently able to be separated from the companies which are developing and training the large models that inspire these concerns.
Therefore be it resolved that the United Methodists of Upper New York and their associated congregations, committees, and institutions are encouraged to avoid the use of generative AI in their ministry contexts, preferring in all possible cases to use human-created resources, art, and research instead.
Therefore be it resolved that, where there is an accessibility or equity need that cannot be otherwise met—such as with live translation for Annual Conference meetings—the same persons and bodies are encouraged to take care to avoid using generative AI for anything except the minimum necessary to ensure full participation.
Therefore be it resolved that, in the aforementioned cases, it is encouraged that priority be given to providing for human resources that can replace the AI uses in question—such as live human translators and relevant audio technology—when budgetary increases are considered.
Therefore be it resolved that the same persons and bodies be encouraged to advocate in local and national governments for reasonable legal oversight to generative AI tools and for the requirement of consent before one’s data is processed by or used to train a generative AI model.
This petition was written and submitted by Rev. Rachel Stuart, Senior Pastor at Hurlbut United Methodist Church in Chautauqua, NY.
AI. It’s everywhere. Today, it has become the default, the equivalent of performing a Google search in terms of how much thought and effort it requires. As this petition points out, the development and spread of AI, and its integration into so many aspects of daily life, has taken place at an incredible pace—one that has kept a generous lead ahead of government regulation and ethical scrutiny. When something is so easy to use in daily life—from Facebook and Instagram to internet searches to ChatGPT—it can be easy to ignore the question of whether or not we should be using it. After all, who doesn’t want to have the top results on Google summarized for them? Who doesn’t want their emails sorted into piles of advertisements, newsletters, and actual emails from real people we know? Who doesn’t want to type in a prompt and have generative AI produce a flyer for an event, a video for social media, or anything else that would make life just a little bit easier? It can be tempting, too, to use AI tools to take notes for us in meetings or classes, to offer captioning or translation services to increase accessibility for little or no cost, or to narrate stories or videos so that we don’t have to. Especially when we’re in a hurry and need something done quickly, or when we feel like we don’t have the gifts or knowledge or ability or energy to perform a task that we know AI is capable of performing. And when we have all these constraints and anxieties, it becomes even easier to resist asking: should we use AI?
I am going to sound like a bit of a Luddite throughout this sermon, but I believe it’s important for us to look at AI with the greatest degree of suspicion. This petition lays out many of the reasons to be suspicious of AI, starting with the fact that the generative AI market is dominated by a handful of corporations, each with their own interests in mind. Fewer corporations controlling an industry while contributing millions each election cycle to lobbying efforts ought to make us suspicious. Add to the mix companies like Microsoft and Google, who are well-known for infringing on individual and institutional privacy, and the AI frenzy ought to make all sorts of alarm bells go off in our heads. These companies are also openly working with private security companies, immigration enforcement, and law enforcement at all levels to track individuals and make it next to impossible to maintain any semblance of privacy. ICE uses AI surveillance to target undocumented families, and local law enforcement departments across the US have gone all-in on the latest AI surveillance technology: Flock cameras. When it comes to training the generative AI programs that do things like write emails and produce images, these programs are trained using emails that people have already written and images that others have created—almost always used without the consent of their creators.
It’s also important to recognize the impact of generative AI on the physical planet we inhabit, and on the lives of other people. As this petition points out, a single data center can consume electricity at a rate comparable to a small city—electricity that is, therefore, not being used in hospitals, schools, homes, churches, and small businesses. The water consumption of these data centers is also nothing new, nor are the rising costs of utilities and the damage that data centers cause to local water infrastructure. Are the convenience and curiosity of generative AI worth lining the pockets of the companies responsible? Are they worth the enormous amounts of energy that it consumes? Can AI help us live into our human vocation? Can it help us build the kin-dom of God, the Beloved Community in which all are valued, loved, fed, and made whole?
In addition to the problematic nature of the AI industry, the use of generative AI carries with it some serious theological problems. The first is that it makes it so much easier for us to ignore the gifts that God has given us for life and ministry, and to ignore the gifts that those around us and invisible to us have. Generative AI would remove a need for those who have the gift of music or visual arts or creative writing or theologizing or philosophizing or learning and interpreting other languages. It allows us to not cultivate these gifts in ourselves, and discourages us from engaging with these gifts in others. Why ask someone else to draw you a picture or write you a prayer, when all you have to do is enter a prompt into ChatGPT? When we encounter problems that our experiences haven’t equipped us for, why would we ask for advice or admit that we don’t have all the answers, when we could just go to Chat and see what it has to say? There is no longer a need to collaborate, engage with professionals, or seek out wisdom from those we recognize as different from us. But there is, because God does not make us to be self-sufficient, but to depend on one another. God does not make us to hubristically create a singular human identity and use that to claim a place above Creation, but to see the gifts each of us has and use them. Each of us has been given gifts by the Spirit, and to neglect those gifts is to neglect what the Spirit has given us.
Second, our dependence on generative AI is a rejection of the human vocation of co-creation. Last Sunday, I talked about the Creation story in Genesis 2, in which God creates people to till the ground. Thus, God invites us to be active in the Creation of the world, and of the kin-dom of God which God has placed in our midst. The Spirit has given us gifts so that we might use them to work together, because none of us has all the gifts needed to fulfill this call on our own. God calls us into community not just because it’s nice for us all to be together, but because we are different. We bring different skills, different experiences, different knowledge. We are the goldsmiths, the perfumers, the carpenters, the priests, the merchants, and the masons described by Nehemiah who share their gifts in rebuilding Jerusalem. Each of us named and storied. When we become dependent on generative AI, when we surrender our ability to collaborate, to think critically, to research, and to seek out our co-laborers, we become like Jonah, who ran from his call to work side-by-side with God. And we all know what happened to that guy. It’s not going to be easy, but Jesus never said it was going to be easy, and Jonah ran because he knew it would be hard. But God goes with us, especially where it is most difficult, and calls us to go together, to do the work of building the Beloved Community in which peace and justice reign.
We are not called to simply do what is easiest, and we certainly aren’t called to simply do what’s best for the bottom line. We are called to engage in the difficult, messy work of co-creation with the divine and one another. We are called to understand, fully, what it means to feel, to be human, to be that which is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. We are called to lean into and embrace the flawed, quirky, queer lives and minds that the Spirit shapes within us, not to seek ways to whitewash our differences. We are not called to assimilate, but to be different and to use our different gifts and gifts of difference with which we have been equipped. God is calling us to build with Them, and with one another. AI cannot generate the City of God. The City is built by human hands, enabled and equipped by God, who calls us together—some to build the foundations, some to build the gates, some to build the towers. We cannot outsource this calling to AI, however tempting that may seem. May we not run from where God is calling us. May we live faithfully into this call to be co-creators. May it be so. Amen.