Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, and 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 Weirock, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, is ChatGPT a good friend?

This is prompted by an exclusive and very interesting article I read in the Washington Post about an analysis that Washington Post reporters did about ChatGPT conversations. In fact, they looked at 47,000 different conversations. If you thought your conversations with ChatGPT were private, shock alert, they're not. They become public information via archives on the Internet so that reporters like the Washington Post can read them.

Over 800 million people use ChatGPT every week. It's become a ubiquitous part of life. What might surprise you is why we're using it. The number one reason people use ChatGPT is for friendship. Most people are going to ChatGPT for emotional support, relationship advice, and existential life questions. They're looking for what they used to find in a best friend or at the barber shop or even at the bar. Instead, they're sitting on their couch talking to a chatbot.

Over 10% of conversations on ChatGPT involve people engaging the chatbot emotionally, sometimes treating it as a romantic partner, other times as a trusted confidant. A big flaw of ChatGPT is it simply reflects you back to you. It learns your preferences. They also found that ChatGPT oftentimes reinforces falsehoods and even conspiracies that the user believes. This becomes troubling because OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, admits that about 1 million users weekly show signs of suicidal ideation.

This is a sign that if we're not careful, ChatGPT and other AI chatbots could be devastating. AI cannot, should not, and ultimately will not ever replace actual human relationships. When God says in Genesis 2:18, "It's not good that man should be alone," it's a reminder that we need community. We need people who don't just reflect our heart back to us but who can actually challenge it.

Emotional dependence on AI is a form of idolatry. Exodus 23 says, "You shall have no other gods before me." Are you quicker to pour your heart out to ChatGPT than you are to God? If ChatGPT is our confidant and source of authority, it's scary because it's alienating us from the actual God who made us, who loves us, and who wants to lead us.

The Bible tells us that we matter to God. Psalm 139:14 says that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. Why would we not go to the God who loves and made us, the God of wisdom, over a chatbot? ChatGPT can never promise us what Jesus did in Matthew 11 when he says, "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Stop pouring your heart out to a chatbot and instead go to God. Lean into God's wisdom. Not only will you stop being idolatrous, but you will find that the God who made us knows how we work best. Life is waiting not on the other end of a phone or a chatbot, but through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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