Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode we're talking about AI therapy and we're asking the question, is a teen you love at risk? Now, this is prompted by an article, pretty disturbing article if I'm honest, that I read recently in the New York Times about how overwhelmingly American teenagers are turning to AI chatbots for therapy. In fact, 72% of American teenagers, that 7 out of every 10 teenagers are using AI chatbots as companions, including in the use of emotional and mental health support. Seven out of ten teenagers are turning to an AI chatbot for intimacy, for friendship, and for mental and emotional health and support. And this is prompting, as you might imagine, some pretty serious concerns because chatbots can give harmful advice. They can be overly affirming of self harm and destructive ideas. They can, uh, be non judgmental, meaning they won't necessarily tell, uh, a, uh, teenager that the way they're thinking isn't right or isn't healthy or isn't good. Chatbots don't have therapeutic training and they just interpret data. They don't read the room. How could they, right? Not to mention the fact that teenagers, their brains are not fully developed. So the chatbot is at the mercy of engaging with someone who really doesn't know what they're thinking or saying, doesn't really even understand the way they feel or how to articulate it. These are things that a actual therapist is equipped to understand and interpret that chatbots are not. And so as a result, a number of professional clinicians are raising the alarm and saying if regulations are not put into place, this could take us to some pretty dark places. Regulations like an AI chatbot alerting authorities or alerting an actual therapist. When a teenager speaks of self harm, listen, this is really important because most of us are connected to at least one teenager that we care about. And the data says more likely than not, that teenager is engaging a chatbot on these issues. So how do we help? As pastors, as parents, as leaders? How can we come alongside teenagers and help them to think about this? Well, believe it or not, the answer is helping teenagers to develop a little bit of theology. Theology that goes like this. First, artificial relationships are not substitutes for actual human intimacy. When God creates Adam in the Garden of Eden, he says it's not good that he's alone. What he means is that the task and responsibility that God has given humans to fill the earth to have dominion over it, to shape the earth, to be his vice regents over all creation requires collaboration. It requires intimacy. It requires partnership. And to that end, God made other people. Chatbots can give us a fraction of that, but they'll never actually give us the full version of that. Look, I'm not interested in trying to convince teenagers to not use technology. That is a lost cause. But we need to get them to see is that technology is not a rate relational substitute. They were made for human relationship. They weren't made to engage AI chatbots. So both can be fine. But one without the other, meaning AI without friendship, is not actually helpful. The other thing we have to get teenagers to understand is what Jeremiah 17 tells us. The heart, uh, is deceitful'desperately, wicked, and it will deceive us. Which means that teenagers need to understand that feelings are not facts. That's a really hard thing when you're 15, 16, 17, that the way they feel right now might not be the way they feel an hour from now. It certainly won't be the way they feel a week from now, and it definitely won't be the way they feel a year from now. You see, parents understand that in a way that AI does not. We have to teach kids to talk about their feelings without defining themselves by their feelings. Chatbots again, are gonna struggle with that. It's also important that as parents, we remember it's actually our call to shepherd our child. You know, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 22 to train up a child in the way he should go. Listen, I'm not saying we don't use other resources, schools or, uh, coaches, educators, counselors, friends, uncles, aunts, grandparents. Sure, they're all helpful. But primarily, the one who should be seeking the heart of your child, the one who should be engaging them about their emotional and mental health, helping them to navigate their own feelings and decisions, is you. We have to recognize that sometimes our kids are turning to AI chatbots because we're not a safe place for their feelings. We're too distracted, we're too angry, we're too frustrated, we're too insecure with our own feelings. What a great opportunity to grab your teenager and say, hey, let's learn together what it looks like to have some intimacy in our own relationship. And of course, finally, we have to point teenagers to the truth that only God can heal the heart. Listen, that's exactly what the scriptures were given to us to do. In Hebrews 4, we'told the word of God can judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. They're turning to AI chatbots for what they may not realize they already have in the Holy Spirit living in them and the scripture of God in front of them. Listen, parents, we have to wake up. The most prominent voice in the heart and mind of your child very well could be an AI chatbot that has no idea what it's doing and, to be frank, doesn't care about your child. Get in the game. In the absence of parental leadership, kids go to all the wrong places. But when a parent engages, they tend to go to them. There's hope. Don't give up, but have a hard conversation today so that you don't have to face a tragedy tomorrow. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!