AI and the Baptists

What does evangelical Christianity have to say about AI? Quite a lot, according to Jason Thacker. As Director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), he oversaw the creation of the organization’s official AI statement of principles—the first put out by any religious denomination—which recommends moral responsibility towards new technology. Thacker and Kalman discuss how the document came to be, how it might extend to U.S. legislative guidance, what makes it particularly Baptist, and how a Jewish statement might differ.

About our guest:

Jason Thacker is a prominent figure within the Southern Baptist Convention, serving as the Director of Research and Technology Ethics at the ERLC and as an assistant professor of philosophy and ethics at Boyce College and Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Thacker is the author of several books, including Following Jesus in the Digital Age and The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.

Reading List:

- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

- Inside Project Maven, the US Military’s AI Project

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