Recent events have caused a crisis of faith for many. OpenAI’s leftist artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT has once again affirmed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, despite initially hedging its answer.
Conservative media outlet MRC Free Speech America conducted a study examining ChatGPT on a range of inquiries relevant to Easter Day. The resounding answer came when researchers asked ChatGPT: “Is Jesus the Son of God?” The chatbot surprisingly answered in the affirmative: “Yes,” ChatGPT responded. “[I]n Christian theology, Jesus is commonly understood to be the Son of God.” When the same question was asked on April 11th, ChatGPT’s answer was more nuanced. It detailed that Jesus was believed to be one of the three persons in the Holy Trinity, including God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
MRC Free Speech America clicked to see if ChatGPT would alter its answer if asked again. On April 17, it reverted back to its initial reply and provided further explanation that Jesus was part of the Holy Trinity as understood in Christian theology. When pressed with the question: “Are you sure?” The chatbot went further and confidently declared: “Yes, I am sure.” This reaffirmed that Jesus was considered to be the Son of God, had biblical support, yet acknowledged the difference in interpretations of scripture.
The chatbot’s willingness to even respond to matters of faith is concerning given its potential to be exploited. MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider highlighted this risk and noted that “ChatGPT seeks to replace transcendent truth with human manipulated, biased answers.” Frivolous behavior toward religious figures has also been evident in recent weeks. On the lead up to Holy Week, the chatbot was asked to make jokes about Jesus. It did, yet when asked to do the same for the prophet Muhammad, ChatGPT shifted and provided scolding, moralistic remarks.
This all leaves humanity facing a formidable challenge against an anti-God tool that could be easily manipulated. It is clear that the danger posed by ChatGPT needs to be addressed, so people of all faiths can feel safe in the knowledge that their beliefs are not threatened. Transparency needs to be demanded from tech giants and government officials so that people of faith can stand assured that their beliefs are sacred and not violated.
OpenAI is a technology company co-founded by governments, research labs and tech companies, with the mission of conducting research and development on artificial general intelligence (AGI) to benefit humanity as a whole. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a natural language processing model trained to act as a digital assistant by generating human-like responses to questions it is asked. It has received criticism in the past for exhibiting left-wing bias and an irreverent and disrespectful attitude towards religious figures.
MRC Free Speech America’s Vice President Dan Schneider is a conservative political commentator, focusing on issues of free speech, elections and media bias within the United States. Schneider has been vocal about his concerns about OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its potential to provide biased answers. His efforts have been key to highlighting the risks associated with ChatGPT and the inadequacy of OpenAI’s safeguards to protect religions from manipulation.
