The exponential interest and “buzz” over AI and its current and, of course, future application found its way under the scrutiny of the Church of Greece this week, as one prominent Metropolitan (bishop) broached the issue of “Artificial Intelligence: The Church Before the Emerging Anthropology.”
The Metropolitan of Mesogea and Lavreotiki, Nikolaos, spoke on the subject during the second day of sessions before hierarchs that comprise the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece’s Holy Synod.
According to reports, Metropolitan Nikolaos, who bishopric includes a good portion of east Attica prefecture, due east of Athens proper, tabled 10 proposals on what the Church’s stance should be vis-à-vis AI.
In the first part of his presentation, the hierarch emphasized that “the challenge for our Church is perhaps the greatest in its history, perhaps even greater than that of persecutions and heresies…Persecutions and heresies did not deny God, they were disrespectful to the true God. The modern deification of technology, in fact, the attribution of the characteristic of Intelligence, replaces the human mind with mechanical logic and intelligence, and God disappears from the horizon of existing beings.”
His Eminence Nikolaos’ proposals included a process by which to quantify exactly what AI means and how and to what extent it affects humans. “What justifies enthusiasm for the achievement and what justifies fear and caution about the consequences,” he said.
He also warned against “looking for conspiracies behind this phenomenon, nor should we be indifferent to how the world is progressing, but we should be aware that history is repeating itself, as described in the Bible.”
He continued by saying that the Church should make use of modern technology in organizing its structures and social work, in enriching its pastoral care with new ideas, and “in general, in expressing and spreading its witness in a way that is uniquely its own, trusting mainly young people with relevant experience and knowledge.”
Additionally, he said AI should be used to “… highlight Orthodox theology in understandable contemporary language; to preserve mystery and mysticism, separating them from emotional illusions, and to emphasize the power of prayer, through which the Church speaks.”
