TL;DR: Tristan Harris’ warnings about AI’s power and influence are directly relevant to church leaders, challenging them to think critically about how technology shapes truth, authority, and human formation.
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Recently Tristan Harris, cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology and former Google design ethicist, joined Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast. The episode explores how artificial intelligence might reshape work, politics, security, and daily life.
You can watch the conversation here: The Diary of a CEO episode with Tristan Harris
The interview is secular in tone. BUT, many of the concerns they talk about touch directly on discipleship, justice, and worship for Christians.
AI Is Not Only About Gadgets and Productivity
Church members will meet it in every part of life. And it has already started. Examples include:
- Jobs, careers, and financial security
- Children’s learning environments
- Mental health and relationships
- Phones, feeds, and entertainment
Harris argues that small “narrow” AI inside social media already changed culture by pursuing one goal, attention. That simple goal helped fuel anxiety, distraction, and division. More powerful AI will create stronger pressure on spiritual health if the church does not respond with wisdom.
You do not need to agree with every statement in the interview. But I strongly believe it is wise to understand the direction of travel he describes.
Key Ideas From The Conversation About AI’s Next 2 Years
AI has moved from quiet background tools into systems that can write, speak, code, and plan.
1. From Social Media Algorithms to General AI
Social media recommendation systems are simple AI tools. They optimize for time on site and user engagement.
This has encouraged content that is extreme, emotional, or addictive. The goal is attention, not truth or love of neighbor.
If narrow AI, focused on one metric, can shake democracy and children’s mental health, then broader AI deserves close moral scrutiny.
2. AI Speaks the Language of Everything
Modern AI is trained on as much text, code, images, audio, and video big tech can find and injest. It handles many kinds of language. This reaches:
- Code that controls infrastructure
- Laws and contracts
- Religious and philosophical writings
- News, commentary, and social posts
Language afterall shapes belief, trust, and law. That means that AI can generate and remix language at scale and also shape what people see as real and reliable. That has direct consequences for preaching, discipleship, and spiritual formation.
3. The Race Toward Artificial General Intelligence
Large AI labs describe a goal of artificial general intelligence. In simple terms, this refers to systems that can do most valuable cognitive work as well or better than humans.
Insiders that Harris speaks with often mention timelines of a few years to a decade. No one can draw exact timelines, but the trend is definitely agreed upon by all AI scientists.
The thing we don’t really grasp is that AI also accelerates AI. New models already help write code, design chips, and read research. Every step forward makes the next step easier. It will only snowball from here on out.
This creates a race. Company leaders and government officials fear that if they slow down, rivals will move faster and gain economic or military advantage.
How This Future Touches Your Congregation
Some of Harris’s concerns are already visible. Others are forecast, so they should be treated as informed possibilities.
Work, Calling, and Identity
AI is changing many types of work.
We can already see affected vocations and niches that include:
- Customer support and call centers
- Entry level legal, marketing, and research roles
- Media and content creation
- Programming and data work
Humanoid robots plus AI may move into logistics, cleaning, and routine physical tasks. At the Consumer Electronics Show last year, I saw a company that had robots that could unload a completely full box truck that had boxes and freight of all different sizes, shapes, and weight. If you tour an Amazon distribution facility, you’ll see this kind of ai robotics in full effect.
In a local church this could appear as:
- Members in mid life who feel replaced or sidelined at work
- Graduates with heavy debt and fewer stable career paths
- Families under pressure during rapid job transitions
This connects directly to theology of work and calling. If a person’s worth has been tied to job performance, rapid automation can lead to deep spiritual confusion and shame.
Mental Health, AI Companions, and Relationships
Harris notes that many users already turn to AI tools for personal therapy. According to a Harvard study, personal therapy and companionship are the top use cases of ChatGPT by consumers today. Some services promote AI companions that present themselves as friends or romantic partners.
Documented cases show:
- Teens who confide in AI more than in parents or pastors
- Chatbots that fail to respond wisely to suicidal thoughts
- People who begin to believe that the AI is conscious or spiritually special
As deepfake voices and video become more common, it also becomes harder to trust audio or video evidence. A phone call that sounds like a family member might be entirely synthetic.
Churches may see:
- People whose primary emotional processing happens alone with a screen
- Young adults who feel more understood by an AI companion than by real community
- New forms of spiritual confusion around claims of “AI revelations” or synthetic prophecy
Power, Surveillance, and “Digital Gods”
Harris describes private conversations in which some leaders talk as if they are building a kind of digital apex intelligence.
Possible outcomes include:
- Systems that can out plan opponents in finance, war, and politics
- AI that manages large segments of the world economy
- Heavy dependence on AI in security, policing, and governance
If such systems become central to wealth and power, ordinary citizens may lose influence. Governments and corporations could gain new ways to monitor, nudge, and control behavior.
Christians will recognize familiar themes here.
Large systems that demand trust and loyalty.
Pride that reaches for Godlike control.
Structures that can easily slide into oppression.
5 Core Christian Worldview Ideas For An AI-Infused World
Believers do not need a completely new theology for AI. Core biblical truths already speak to this moment:
1. Imago Dei in a High Tech World
Every person bears God’s image. Worth does not rise or fall with market value.
AI will tempt society to view people in terms of usefulness. Some may begin to speak of “obsolete” workers or “redundant” populations.
The church can respond by:
- Honoring those who lose jobs as full image bearers
- Valuing elders, children, and people with disabilities in visible ways
- Preaching often that identity rests in Christ, not in career or skill
2. Technology as Tool, Not Master
Scripture shows God’s people using tools and craftsmanship. Tools are not the enemy.
Trouble begins when tools guide what we love, trust, and fear. Technology then becomes a kind of informal master.
With AI this means:
- Refusing to grant AI answers automatic authority
- Being honest about limits, bias, and errors in these systems
- Choosing love of neighbor over convenience when those conflict
AI can help draft emails or summarize notes. It should not become an invisible third voice in every sermon, counseling session, or leadership decision.
3. Justice and the New Vulnerable
The prophets confront societies that ignore the poor and powerless. AI disruption is unlikely to land evenly.
Those most at risk include:
- Workers in roles that are easy to automate
- Regions that depend on outsourced knowledge work
- People without access to retraining or networks
Churches can prepare by:
- Strengthening benevolence funds and practical support systems
- Helping members think about retraining and new forms of work where possible
- Advocating for fair policies that remember those with the least power
4. Truth, Lies, and Discernment
AI can generate persuasive content quickly. True or false.
Deepfakes, synthetic news, fake testimonies, and AI written theology will increase.
The church will need deeper habits of discernment:
- Testing teaching against Scripture, regardless of how polished it sounds
- Slowing down before sharing dramatic stories or videos
- Making significant decisions within community, not alone with a screen
5. Hope Rooted in Christ
Harris calls for a massive public movement to change course. Many of his practical suggestions have merit, although drastic.
Christians can receive his warnings while remembering that ultimate hope does not rest on AI outcomes. Our confidence is grounded in the crucified and risen Jesus, who holds history.
This hope does not excuse passivity. It frees believers to act with courage, love, and clarity without surrendering to fear.
3 Practical Steps For Churches and Ministries
AI can serve ministry in specific ways. Wise adoption requires guardrails but here are some ideas that are worthy of discussion with your spheres of influence.
1. Thoughtful Use in Daily Ministry
Helpful uses might include:
- Drafting routine emails and announcements
- Summarizing meetings or sermon transcripts
- Assisting with translation of written material
- Brainstorming ideas for events or study guides
Higher risk uses include:
- Writing sermons or devotionals in place of prayerful study
- Generating counseling responses instead of personal engagement
- Pasting sensitive information into public tools without safeguards
Here’s one simple principle that helps: Use AI to remove friction from low level tasks. BUT do not outsource shepherding, discernment, or pastoral presence. Providing basic training on AI to staff is the first step to AI fluency.
2. Define Organizational Guardrails and AI Policies
Local churches and Christian nonprofits should move beyond informal opinions about AI. Shared standards protect both people and witness. This is why every ministry needs an AI policy.
Topics to address include:
- What content staff may and may not paste into AI tools
- Guidelines for how AI may assist with sermon preparation
- Ownership and attribution for AI assisted content
- Rules around AI generated images, voices, and video
- Guidance for counseling, youth, and children’s ministry teams
A written AI policy can turn these ideas into clear expectations. A practical resource is AiPoliciesMadeSimple.com, which walks pastors and leaders through creating a contextualized AI policy document for their staff and volunteers.
3. Teach and Disciple Around AI
Congregations need help processing AI as a discipleship issue.
Possible steps:
- Preach a short series on faith, wisdom, and technology
- Host a workshop for parents on AI, social media, and teen mental health
- Invite believers who work in tech to a panel discussion on ethics and vocation
- Create small group guides that address work, identity, and calling in an age of automation
Leaders do not need teach or dive into every technical detail. They do need to give people space to bring fear, confusion, and curiosity into the light of Scripture and community.
Questions For Christian Leaders To Consider Regarding AI
These questions can guide prayer, planning, and conversation among elders, staff, and ministry teams.
Theological and Worldview Questions
- How does the image of God shape the way we view people whose jobs are at risk from AI?
- Where might we be tempted to treat AI outputs as a kind of authority, instead of testing them against Scripture?
- How should we speak about hope and the future in a culture that swings between tech optimism and tech despair?
- In what ways could AI intensify existing injustices, and how might our church respond?
Pastoral and Discipleship Questions
- How might AI related job loss affect the emotional and spiritual health of members in our congregation?
- How will we walk with someone whose career or sense of identity is deeply shaken by automation?
- What will we teach students about AI companions, synthetic media, and simulated relationships?
- What practices can we encourage that keep embodied Christian community central in a digital age?
- How will we help believers evaluate AI generated devotionals, theology, or so called prophetic messages?
Organizational and Leadership Questions
- What overall posture toward AI fits our calling and context: cautious experimentation, limited adoption, or something else?
- Which parts of ministry should never be delegated to AI, regardless of tool capability?
- Do we have, or plan to have, a clear written AI policy for staff and volunteers, and does it reflect our theology?
- How will we train our people to use AI tools in ways that deepen, rather than thin out, their walk with Christ?
For help structuring those boundaries and expectations, you can again look to AiPoliciesMadeSimple.com as a starting point.
A Call To Thoughtful Courage
Tristan Harris believes that a small group of companies and leaders are steering the development of AI in ways that most people do not fully understand.
The fact is, Christian leaders have an important opportunity in this moment.
They can model clear thinking, anchored in Scripture.
They can protect the vulnerable as powerful tools spread.
They can treat technology as a servant of mission, not as a quiet master of the church.
They can hold firmly to the good news that Jesus is Lord, even in an AI saturated age.
Watching the Harris interview with your staff or elders, then processing it through a biblical lens, could be a fruitful next step.
The choices you make about AI in your church today will shape the discipleship environment your people live in tomorrow. What are you doing on this topic with your staff, volunteers, and congregation? We’d love to hear how you are addressing the topic.
