188—Christians against AI art—Susannah Black Roberts

By Thomas V. Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jan 10, 2025 | In The Catholic Culture Podcast

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There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.” Plus, the danger of demonic influence through AI should not be overlooked.

Susannah Black Roberts is a senior editor of Plough and has written for publications including First Things, Fare Forward, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, and The American Conservative.

Links

Susannah’s thread on Twitter https://x.com/suzania/status/1866516737057083862

Plough Quarterly https://www.plough.com/

PloughCast 66: The Technology of Demons w/ Paul Kingsnorth https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/the-technology-of-demons

David Schaengold, “Computers Can’t Do Math” https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/computers-cant-do-math

Robert Cotton, “Augustine, AI, and the Demon Heuristic” https://mereorthodoxy.com/augustine-ai-and-the-demon-heuristic

The Anchored Argosy https://argosy.substack.com/

Theme music: “Franciscan Eyes”, written and performed by Thomas Mirus. Download the Catholic Culture Podcast soundtrack.