A few weeks ago, I took my first Waymo Ride.
Waymo is like Uber, but with a fully automated car… there is no driver. You order a ride on the app, you get into the car when it arrives, and push a button on a screen to say that you’ve secured your seatbelt and are ready to go. Then off you are driven to your destination, following a route chosen by the computer and following all the rules of the road.
It was alarming at first. But by the end of the ride, it felt much more like a “normal” Uber ride. I could watch the screen that identified all the cars around us, and feel the car adjust when other cars made unexpected choices around us.
Without a driver, I didn’t have to worry about being assigned a human driver who was dangerous, inebriated, or discriminatory against me or any other rider. I didn’t have to tip.
Without a driver, I didn’t get to support the labor of a human driver, I didn’t have a connection with a neighbor I was commanded to love, and there was definitely a sense in the pit of my stomach that this experience was only the beginning of travel supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This year’s Moral Theology General Ordination Examination question was about Generative AI and its implications on the environment, human labor, human development, art, and creativity. I’m glad our future priests were reflecting on this, and that the Episcopal Church as a new task force looking at AI and its implications for:
- The use of generative AI in writing and preparing sermons and liturgies;
- The use of generative AI in hiring;
- The use of generative AI in writing theological and academic works;
- The use and potential misuse of The Episcopal Church’s copyrighted materials; and
- Investigation of best practices with regard to generative AI from various sources, including other Christian denominations and nonprofit organizations;
I am something of a Luddite with advanced technology–I would rather read something than watch it on video; I cannot imagine using AI to help write a sermon, or a liturgy, or to be a replacement for a human employee. But I have watched enough science fiction to anticipate that at some point there will be questions about the personhood of AI-powered robots, assistants, or androids. And there I was in the Waymo. The future is not far off. It is already here.
