The Syllabus is a column that features student opinions on timely national and international topics. We aim to highlight how evangelical students in the US are thinking about important issues and how the Christian faith informs their worldview. Students should use this link to submit a response for May’s prompt: “More young men are saying religion is ‘very important’ to them. At the same time, religiosity is dropping among young women. What do you think is driving this trend?” Responses are due by May 18.
For this column, students were asked the following about generative artificial intelligence tools, “How do you think about AI use, and how are your peers using the technology? What, if anything, do you believe the Christian faith has to say about how we use AI?” Here is what they said:
Generative AI is Ruining School
I am a teaching assistant at school, and I’m passionately against the use of generative AI for a myriad of reasons. But the most prominent reason is that it is essentially ruining my peers.
ChatGPT and other AI platforms rose in popularity during my undergraduate career, and I have seen my classmates pay for an education only to outsource their thinking and problem-solving abilities to a regurgitation machine. AI is like an echo chamber for opinions and solutions, and after enough use, the shortcuts people take for the sake of ease create other problems.
As a teaching assistant, I think most students are far behind where they should be in regard to their critical thinking skills, work ethic, and creativity. Many also can’t recall information they recently learned, much of which I suspect is tied to AI use.
I believe the Christian faith should be against anything that harms us. AI promises simplicity, but in higher education, it is stripping us of our ability to learn and create without technological aids. Christians should be wary of anything that presents itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If God created us with our own ability to think and create, why would we outsource that ability to a computer?
Paige Potts, senior at Pepperdine University, philosophy
AI Critics Need to Chill Out
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, many people had a negative reaction to it. Some asked, among other things, “Why would a phone need a touchscreen?”
Today, the iPhone is the most-used and most-popular phone in the US. The kind of criticism the phone initially received, however, has continued. Whenever there’s cutting-edge technology, there is also a group of people who criticize the product. I believe this is partly because some people are afraid of the endless possibilities—and disruptions—that can come with new technologies.
In college, I’ve seen my peers use AI to answer random questions, help them understand their course material, and assist with school projects. AI is being used not just to “get answers” but to break down complex ideas into simpler terms. For example, instead of rereading a textbook multiple times, students will ask AI to explain a concept step by step or give real-world examples, which speeds up the learning process significantly.
AI is very similar to the introduction of the iPhone: It’s a powerful innovation that changes how we interact with information. The difference comes down to how individuals choose to use it. In my view, the best use of AI is as a support system that helps you learn faster, not as a replacement for your own effort.
Tyler McKinney, senior at Baylor University, supply chain management
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Assistance or Substitution?
The workforce tells us proficiency with AI is the defining skill of our generation, but classrooms still treat it as a threat to formation. So, as college students, we live in that tension.
It’s challenging to remember academic world without AI. We use it to generate study guides, flashcards, and practice problems and to brainstorm when ideas feel just out of reach. It is instinctual to use AI. And when a deadline closes in or a question feels insurmountable, the line between assistance and substitution can blur. And that has become more than a problem of tool usage.
We are accountable not only to institutional rules but also to one another, to ourselves, and ultimately to God. To passively use a tool in a way that violates trust, even if normalized by the world, forms us away from truth and toward selfish convenience.
Discernment is more important than ever when using technological tools for school-related work. AI use in the Christian classroom is more than efficiency or prohibition, but, instead, about who we are becoming before God.
Pauline Lu, junior at Calvin University, computer science
AI Use in Ministry
When I fear potential threats posed by AI, I recall the Teacher’s words in Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun” (1:9). If Adam and Eve were made in the image of God at the beginning, did they truly seek godlikeness from the tree in Genesis, or were they looking for omniscience? If it was the latter, I imagine AI may be selling us the same lie packaged in a different fruit.
Personally, I have seen some colleagues use AI to generate ice breakers and PowerPoints and to summarize lectures. I’m certain there are positive contributions AI is offering to many fields, though I can’t help but wonder how little we’ll be inclined to rely on the Spirit’s inspiration as AI replaces our opportunities to think, listen, and create.
In every generation though, God is faithful to use creation to work within creation. The greatest demonstration of this was God taking on the flesh of creation to enter into it so he could reconcile everything back to himself. If approached with great discernment, AI could be a helpful instrument in new opportunities to serve both God and people.
Lauren Webber, graduate student at Fuller Seminary, theology
Future AI Use Might Not Be a Choice
My friends use AI for studying, my parents use AI to generate blueprints for their landscaping business, and my professors use AI to make graphs from complicated data sets.
As a college student at a liberal arts college, I am generally anti-AI. While calculators can do long division faster and with greater accuracy than any fourth grader, knowing how to do the math is as valuable as knowing the answer. Likewise, the same reasoning applies to my studies as a math and philosophy student.
However, I do suspect my position will shift once I enter the workforce. The steam engine, cotton gin, power loom, and assembly line all fueled economic growth and productivity while radically shifting the realities of everyday life. In the same way, AI has the potential to be a catalyst for another type of industrial revolution. And we might need to adapt.
The mission of the church doesn’t change with the advent of innovation. We are still called to love one another and use our resources, whether they be time, money, or technology, for God’s glory.
Tori Gomez, freshman at Wheaton College, math and philosophy
Go DuckDuckGo?
My default browser is DuckDuckGo, and not because I like the mascot. Before the widespread adoption of generative AI, looking up a question involved critical thinking, evaluating the credibility of sources, and finding multiple views. These days a simple search on Google returns paragraphs of an AI-generated summary and an overload of related topics in an instant. So, I decided to use a browser that was AI optional.
My peers and I have abandoned our thought-out and researched answers to questions about accounting audit standards because someone told us “chat says so.” News flash: we were right. AI takes the search out of research and worsens our already-maxed-out information consumption.
Simply put, we are weak. Using generative AI is easy, and our flesh loves acedia. Proverbs 20:4 warns us that “sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing.”
I’ve watched peers use AI to generate flashcards rather than handwriting them. This seems harmless, but research continuously shows that engaging fine motor skills significantly improves our ability to remember something. Others use AI to take quizzes for them, which is a clear violation of university academic-integrity policies and Christian ethics.
The technology can be powerful if used correctly. But now it’s on the front of nearly every search engine and is replacing individual thought in the classroom.
Paige Demosthenes, junior at Baylor University, accounting and management
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