Should Christians Harness AI Chatbots As A Force For Good? Part 1 – mindmatters.ai

This article is reprinted in two parts with the permission of author Doug Smith from his blog That Doug Smith(October 12, 2025) Smith is the author of [Un]Intentional: How Screens Secretly Shape Your Desires, and How You Can Break Free. This is the first of two parts.
As Christians, we care about ultimate values. Love. Truth. Wisdom. All embodied in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
But we don’t always agree on how we should express our ultimate values. We’re especially confused about whether to use Generative AI chatbots.
What is the right Christian posture towards GenAI chatbots today? Are chatbots the way to satisfy our “hunger and thirst for righteousness?” Or are they more like a fast-food substitute, with the equivalent of addiction-forming chemicals that poison us while we can’t stop eating them?
Should we “run right to [AI] and find ways … of shaping this technology as a force for good,” as Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel and head of technology at faith-forward AI startup Gloo, recently urged?
Or should we observe, ask questions, compare what we’re seeing with Scripture, and wait to see what kind of fruit develops from the tree of knowledge GenAI claims to be?
I’m going to interact with the Christian Post article about Pat Gelsinger’s keynote and event to explore these questions.
According to the article, the Christian Post and Gloo sponsored an event at Colorado Christian University on October 7, 2025. Gelsinger’s topic was: “AI for Humanity: Navigating Ethics and Morality for a Flourishing Future.” Sounds praise-worthy, right? 
Justification of AI by faith in the Tool Trope alone
But how does Gelsinger begin? If you’ve read my work, you’ll know. The tool trope (it’s just a tool).
In his keynote, Gelsinger says, “I believe deeply that technology is neutral. It’s neither good nor bad.” He continues, “It’s how we shape it, how we use it, how we form it.” And his challenge: “Are we going to show up to be bending the arc of technology for good?”
I continue to be grieved that so many Christians are deceived by this lie. While Gelsinger will go on to compare AI to the printing press and Roman roads, he, like many others, refuses to look at generative AI for what it is, what it is designed to do, and how it harms us, before declaring that it can be shaped for good.
That’s why I say it is justification of AI by faith in the tool trope alone.
I’ve pushed against the tool trope here and here, but let’s look at it again, starting with Neil Postman’s push-back:
[indent]But it is much later in the game now, and ignorance of the score is inexcusable. To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple” (p. 157, Amusing Ourselves to Death, emphasis mine).
Marshal McLuhan (1911‒1980) similarly calls believers of the tool trope, “technological idiots.” Strong words, designed as a wake-up call. So why do so many fall prey to it?
Part of it is the “myth of progress” we’re all swimming in today. Star Trek has discipled us to expect a glorious future with food replicators, transporters, and friendly, benevolent artificial intelligence. Utopia is coming, we are assured.
And Utopia is exactly what Big Tech promises, as I have shown in a previous article:
Many other leaders like Dario Amodei, Ray Kurzweil, Mark Andreessen, and even Elon Musk have utopian views of AI that form a techno-powered eschatology. Amodei predicts curse-overcoming health gains. He proclaims that “AI-accelerated biology will greatly expand what is possible: weight, physical appearance, reproduction, and other biological processes will be fully under people’s control.” And Andreessen shares a gospel: “I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it.”
But salvation by technology isn’t the Bible’s promise. Scripture does teach that the age to come will be utopian, but only under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ, not by man’s clever inventions. In fact, man’s works fall more closely in line with the Beast of Revelation, which is destroyed before the age of shalom under King Jesus.
The Tool Trope test
So why do GenAI chatbots fail the tool trope test? Because a technology that deceives us by feeling person-like harms us in ways that are categorically different from any other:
Influential Christian leaders like Gelsinger claim (by faith, without evidence) that since the printing press was used for good, GenAI chatbots can be used for good too.
But books weren’t claiming to be sentient. Printed material, while life-changing and society-shaping, weren’t created to deceive us into feeling that they are human-like. People certainly do become bookworms, but there are no dark user-experience patterns causing us to become addicted or form actual relationships with books.
Next: Enthusiasts seem to have bought into Big Tech’s Utopia. With what consequences?
Moody Radio’s wise and insightful Janet Parshall interviewed me about this article.  You can hear the interview here.
Mind Matters features original news and analysis at the intersection of artificial and natural intelligence. Through articles and podcasts, it explores issues, challenges, and controversies relating to human and artificial intelligence from a perspective that values the unique capabilities of human beings. Mind Matters is published by the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

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