Writing and AI

Perils and pitfalls for today’s Christian writer:

There is no question that the world of AI is changing everything. For example, we already have generative AI replacing or modifying all sorts of human activities, including human creativity, be it in art or in music. And the world of writing is no exception.

I am not a Luddite, and AI can have its place – especially in saving time in various areas such as science, math and so on. But I have also long been warning about the dangers of AI. And it is not just concerns about machines replacing humans. The Christian has further concerns as well.

Yesterday a noted American Christian writer, teacher, apologist and social media friend posted this on his social media page: “I have never used a ghost writer nor AI for writing in my name. I never will. I believe in authentic authorship under God Almighty.”

I ‘liked’ it, as did others, although some demurred and thought he was being silly. And he will not mind me naming names here: he is Professor Douglas Groothuis. I too do not want to turn my writing or teaching career over to AI. But the pressure is on to do just that.

Things are changing, and third parties come into play here as well. That is – in my case at least – with the internet age now well and truly upon us, many thousands of times others have shared and republished my writings. Sometimes they ask first to get my permission, sometimes not.

So my material is now all over cyberspace. Generally speaking, I am happy to see my stuff reach a larger audience, and to see truth getting out there more widely. And if others use my writings, they can of course do some editing. But this is where things can get tricky.

Often I know the group or the person or the editor and I trust them to do a good job with my material, even if they make various changes. Indeed, any good editor will at least look out for obvious things like spelling and grammar issues. They may add things for clarity or take away bits to keep things somewhat briefer – or less libellous!

But hopefully they are more or less on the same page as I when it comes to content. But this is not always the case. For example, once a site that reprinted my stuff added a concluding quote by Obama to an article of mine! It was surprising and jarring, and even one commentator wrote in asking if I had written that, because it did not seem to fit with what I was saying!

Man vs machine

Here I want to look further at this editing process, mainly in terms of other Christians or ministries who are doing this. How might we think about using AI, ChatGPT and so on? Obviously, MS Word and other programs now routinely offer spelling and grammar checks. That can be very useful indeed, although we all know of predictive text howlers and the like.

I also have others kindly looking over my pieces, and they will point out things that might need changing. (Writers know the value of a second or third pair of eyes!) So I am not begrudging that. But when Christian editors rely on AI to change a piece – whether to keep it shorter or whatever – that is when I can start getting a bit squeamish.

And my main reason is this: All Christian activities and endeavours – even the humblest and seemingly most inconsequential ones – really should be done by the help of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of God. One might think that editing is no big deal, and if AI can do it, then no drama. But, at the end of the day, it is still a soulless machine, clearly without the Holy Spirit.

When I write anything – be it a short comment, an article, or a book – I seek to do it prayerfully and carefully. I need the help of the Holy Spirit, otherwise I am just wasting my time – and God’s. I do not mind human beings who are Christians and have the Holy Spirit to help oversee what I have penned. And hopefully they are just as eager to do this prayerfully and carefully.

AI has no such spiritual constraints. It is merely performing certain tasks. Those might be helpful tasks at times, but nonetheless, God is totally removed from the equation. So for me, there are not only questions of intellectual property rights that might need to be considered here, but more importantly, where is God in all this?

One case in point: a Christian editing a Christian piece might receive a check in his spirit, with the Holy Spirit warning about something: a false claim, an ungodly statement, a scurrilous or unedifying remark, and so on. No computer algorithm will get a caution from the Holy Spirit.

Sure, the editor might say he runs the AI editor first, and then he gives it a look over. That MIGHT be better, but it is still not ideal. I have warned before of busy Christians who more and more rely on AI to help them do all sorts of things, be it to write sermons, to produce Christian articles, and so on.

I am NOT saying that I need no editorial assistance. I am not inspired and inerrant as the biblical authors were, so I can always use some help to be better in my writing. But my writing is the product of myself, a Christian who is seeking to glorify God and be led by the Spirit as I carry out my ministry. A machine is not and never will be a part of this.

Another example: a few days ago I found some gospel and Bible texts set to music – in this case, to the blues (I like the blues). But after posting a few of these songs, I found them to be quite similar in many ways. Looking further, I discovered they were all basically AI creations.

Some Christians said they liked the tunes and thanked me for sharing them. But at the end of the day if the aim is to glorify God in all things, to edify and disciple believers, to reach the lost, and to represent our Lord faithfully, can reliance – even partial reliance – on AI ever truly achieve these aims? I doubt it.

Short and sweet?

One can also mention the tendency for some Christians to want to keep everything very short. They think that in order to better reach folks and keep their attention, they have to basically cater to where they are at. That then becomes another area where they can rely on AI to do the job.

But what happens when you in effect have a whole culture with ADD? That is, we increasingly have a dumbed down generation – Christians included – and we have more and more folks whose attention span is that of a goldfish.

Some think we have to accept that reality and cater to it, so they will want really brief articles or sermons, or will do a fair amount of chopping and cutting to keep things quite short and sweet. Is this a good idea? I have already written on this: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/07/24/thinking-being-dumbed-down-and-ai/

Let me say just a bit more. It is certainly good to try to reach people where they are at – but only up to a point. My preference is NOT to go along with dumbing people down, because there is no end as to how far we might go with this. As I have said before, there is a reason the Bible is made up of 66 books.

I am glad the biblical authors are not alive today, as they would be pressured by some to not be so longwinded. Instead of 66 books, they might be encouraged to keep it down to 16 books. Instead of 150 psalms, they might be pushed to just have 15. Instead of lengthy and careful discussions of Christian doctrine, as in the book of Romans, they might think that a comic book version, or a Reader’s Digest version, would be just as good.

Yes, I am using the literary figure of exaggeration or hyperbole here. But the risk of seeing believers who already read very little Scripture and get antsy when a sermon goes over 20 minutes is very real and getting worse. I am not sure we should be aiding and abetting that unhelpful and downward tendency.

Biblical truth cannot be reduced to bumper sticker cliches. I do like memes and use them a lot on the social media, but always in the context of my overall thinking and writing. In the same way, biblical proverbs are short, pithy and punchy sayings. But there are 31 chapters of them in the OT, and they must be considered in light of the totality of biblical revelation.

I might be old school, but I think we should be leading the world around us and not simply following it. Those who think they should just offer really short messages are welcome to run with that. But I will tend to stick with taking as much time (and words) as is required to share truth in a way that does not do injustice to it.

And BTW, it is one thing for AI to chop down things that I have written. I might be able to live with that, but it becomes more of a worry when AI starts chopping the things others have written that I am quoting in my articles. I try to be quite careful when I quote others, hopefully giving their quotes due contextual justice.

In sum, I am not telling other Christians and other Christian ministries how they should proceed. They must do what they feel God is leading them to do. But I find that there are some things I will likely never do. Like Groothuis, I cannot imagine that I will ever allow a machine to take over my writing ministry.

Sure, AI might well become a better writer than I, a cleverer writer than I, and a more succinct writer than I. But it will never be more spiritual than I, or more Spirit-filled than I. It might be useful for all sorts of things, but why am I reminded of this famous Old Testament passage? Psalm 106:15 says this: “And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls.”

No, the psalmist did not have AI in mind when he wrote that! But I think the age of AI WILL be sending leanness to our souls if we Christians are not quite careful here. We all must think and pray more about how we proceed in the days ahead as AI increasingly takes over everything – Christian ministry included.

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