Hello, friends, colleagues, and everybody out there! I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and you’re listening to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast where we get your faith and work aligned. On the agenda today, I’m super excited, because I’m covering artificial intelligence. You’ll learn why it’s important to contrast all your AI tools with real wisdom, and why knowing the purpose behind those tools is so important. Here we go!

OK. So artificial intelligence. Love it or hate it, it is pretty much everywhere. You know, you’re on Amazon, it recommends products, that’s AI. You get in a self-driving car, that’s AI. Inventory, safety enhancement, quality assurance, fraud detection, just about every arm of business now has some form of AI behind it. And the growth of the industry is just insane. There was a report from Facts and Factors that predicted that the global artificial intelligence market size and share revenue would go from 29.86 billion in 2020 all the way up to 299.64 billion by 2026.

So all that said, let’s just step back and acknowledge what AI actually is. AI really is just the use of technology to gather data and complete tasks. And within that, a lot of the focus has been on what we can do. For example, can we get AI to turn on your lights or recognize cancer cells. Can we get it to control devices on Mars from here on Earth, or can we use it to spot when people are struggling emotionally on the job. In that sense, I think it is very clear that we are living in an abundance of intelligence. We’re making more imagined activities a reality than ever before, and we clearly can do a ton of things today that were impossible even a decade or two ago.

But intelligence is not the same as wisdom. Intelligence is just having information and understanding it, figuring out if it’s accurate or complete. Wisdom is the ability to apply the information you have in a way that differentiates between right and wrong. And as useful as AI can be, it never is going to be truly wise. It’s never really going to be able to pick apart complex situations and problems based on the really sophisticated webs of moral values that we build over time. So there are always going to be some decisions that you just cannot leave to the machine, and that might even take a team of individuals working together to come to a conclusion on.

So let me give you a very basic example. Let’s say a company develops an AI software that can generate articles for me. There are news organizations that already use these kinds of programs. Now, that AI can get pretty far, it can get me a pretty good rough draft so I have time to do more fact checking, that kind of thing, which is positive. But as a journalist, then I still have to take that draft and look through it and think about, OK, let’s change this word out because the connotation is a little different, or let’s cut this paragraph because it has some details we could do without. Or as a more controversial example, now we’re developing AI that can help us predict how likely it is that we’ll develop specific conditions based on our DNA. But even if the predictions were accurate, well OK, is it beneficial for you to know such and such a disease is gonna close in 20 years down the road? You know, would that help you plan and do more with the time you’ve got, or would it just cast this shadow over everything and just ruin the time you’ve got left? Or maybe your AI tells you, you know, Joe from accounting, he’s not getting the results you want, so it’s time to fire him. But you know he’s got kids, maybe he’s been depressed or just lost a loved one. So do you listen to the AI and cut him lose so you can meet your quota? Or do you wait a minute and say, OK, I know what the AI says from the numbers standpoint, but hey, let’s get him some training, or maybe all he needs is a mentor to help him out. You know, AI doesn’t really have a heart for those kinds of decisions. But you do.

So as a broad rule, AI is going to enable all the “can’s”. It’s going to let you move from Point A to B to C and so on. But it is never going to handle the “shoulds” behind any of what you make happen. And that has to be at the front of your mind, because if you can’t answer why you’re doing something with an AI process, if you can’t identify what the benefits and the risks are and really think hard about the short- and long-term consequences, then in my view, applying the AI is just completely inappropriate. I’m not saying everybody has to agree with your stance or your rationale. What I am saying is that you have to be able to defend that stance and rationale with everything you’ve got and really believe in it.

So where does wisdom come from? Just like anything else, it’s a gift from God. And it’s one you can ask Him for. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” And I want to focus just for a second on that one part. It says “without finding fault”. Did you notice that? If you come to God, He’s not gonna bash you for being some kind of idiot. He already knows everything about you, He saw what you had for breakfast, He knows that you’re not perfect. And just like He did with King Solomon in 1 Kings 3, He’s just gonna tell you, you know, because you asked for something that really has value, I’m gonna give that wisdom to you and give you the other stuff you could have asked for, too. And let me tell you, when God gives you wisdom, it’s not out of the bargain bin, OK? It’s the best of the best, and just like everybody noticed how awesome Solomon’s wisdom was, people are gonna notice the decisions you make and the outcomes you get, too.

The other thing I want to mention here is, using AI to serve people better, make things easier for your team, that’s one thing. But I think a lot of the time, people use AI just to make predictions as part of risk management. And the problem with that is that it makes it so easy to put your trust in something that’s entirely of this world. Instead of going to God, who can tell you with 100 percent accuracy what’s gonna happen, you go to this machine, and you say, oh, well, all right software, you go ahead and tell me what to do or what the trend is gonna be. And you know, God can reveal things however He wants. And maybe it really is part of His plan to show you the numbers in just such a way that everything is really clear to you. Maybe He does use AI to help people understand. I can’t say one way or the other on that. But once you trust the tool more than the one who enables it, you know, when it becomes your failsafe or your idol, that’s a problem. So you have to be careful that, even when you have great AI in front of you, you still take everything to God and you ask Him to guide you in the choices you have to make. Because remember, even if your AI tells you one thing, it’s completely God’s purogative to turn things on a dime and change it all. So all of the planning you did based on your tools, it can all be dust by the morning. You never have complete control of the future, no matter the people who market the AI to you are going to tell you.

Now all this said, let’s assume that you have a really good, positive, helpful “should” behind using an AI tool. You’ve thought about it, you know, you’re not just pulling it into your business just to keep up with the Joneses and market yourself as a tech-based group. How do you choose an AI that’s right for you? Well, there are a few things to look out for.

First, you really have to dig into how the AI was constructed. There can be biases right in the design, you know, engineers are human. And if you’ve got information coming from lots of different sources, you can end up with responses that really aren’t reliable or very good. So you have to look at the quality of the data and how that’s all put together right from the beginning. You know, the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. And within that, the AI has to be able to present insights in a way that you actually can interpret and understand. For example, a big long sheet of numbers might be harder to grasp than a really clean, graphics-based dashboard. You have to be able to see what the results are and identify exactly what the ROI is.

Secondly, think about whether the solution really is going to fit your company. There are a lot of off-the-shelf kinds of solutions out there. And there are some fantastic tools that have open API or different plugins so you can customize to the way you already work. But sometimes, depending on your processes, it really is worth it to pass on those and have a developer build you something that’s entirely custom and that can scale with you as you grow. And scalability by itself is critical. And yes, that can mean, hey, can we get all our stores or offices using this. Or hey, can we maybe apply this to more business cases in the future. But it always has to be realistic. It has to be something that genuinely addresses a need that users actually have, not just something you want to do--again, it’s that can versus should. And sometimes it really is better to start with a smaller target, especially if it’s going to give your customers and employees time to adjust. And of course, scalability connects to flexibility. It can mean, OK, maybe you want your AI to do this extra task just for a few months, but not all the time. That’s gonna let you respond to trends and the market really well.

Then think about how often your AI is going to need updating. Some systems, a lot of it can be done automatically. But others, the models, you have to update those manually on your own. That isn’t necessarily difficult, per se, but it does take a lot of extra work, and you just want to take those kinds of things off your plate if you can. And good support ties to this. Make sure that you can actually talk to someone when you’ve got a problem and that you’re not just gonna get ticket after ticket on the issue you’re having.

And then support is wrapped up in the last point, which is the overall cost. It’s really important here that you identify exactly what your requirements are early on, because the more things you need your AI to do, the more sophisticated it has to do or the more updating it’s gonna need, all of those kinds of things are going to make the AI more expensive over time.

So that’s kind of a basic list of how you can evaluate your AI if you need it. But everything ultimately starts with wisdom. It starts with taking a step back, getting your entire team to agree what purpose you have, you know, checking for biases or other problems, and committing to the idea that that purpose is the right thing to do. And once you have that, you know, don’t keep anything in the dark. Companies get in trouble all the time because they use AI to gather or apply information without proper consent. Don’t do that! Think about John 3:21. That says, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” Ephesians 4:25 points out how important truth is because we’re all members of the same body with God, and just a little later, in Ephesians 6:14 says you should stand with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. And you probably know John 8:32 that says “the truth will set you free.” So you have to be honest and communicate and tell people exactly how your AI processes work and why. Then they can make the informed choice about whether they want to stay with you or not, rather than you manipulating them or withholding the truth.

So let’s do something that never requires any technology at all and talk to God for a second to wrap things up.

God, AI is more sophisticated than ever. But we still struggle with the “should” part of it. We struggle with having enough wisdom, with making sure that we think about the ethics and moral side of what’s possible. Give us a heart that always knows that wisdom comes from You, and that you can give us clarity. And when we start trusting in the tools too much, set us back on the right course and remind us that all we really need to predict anything or to serve others well is You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

That’s the show for today. Next week, I’m going to be talking about setting resolutions--resolutions, not just OKRs--for yourself, your team, and your business. It is that time where we want to think about how we can improve, after all, but you’ll be able to use what you learn through the entire year. So with that, get involved with the show by subscribing, send me a message on Twitter at @FaithfulOTC, and until next time, be blessed.