Faith in the Future: Unleashing AI’s Potential for Ministry Impact

By Danny Houghton

“What all of us have to do is to make sure we are using AI in a way that is for the benefit of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity.” —Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

My kids’s eyes danced with excitement, and then widened with disbelief as I played a video on my iPhone of their beloved uncle Jamey on the set of his YouTube channel, 8thirty2. It began simply enough with him stating “numbers in Revelation have significance.” Then it got interesting. The phrase was repeated, but this time in Arabic, with a subtitle noting the language. But it was Uncle Jamey speaking, with his lips forming the words in Arabic, and his gestures perfectly matching the strangely formed words! He was speaking Arabic! My son Andrew began noting the languages as they rolled by; French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin… fourteen languages in all that were generated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). As the demo reel finished, Andrew gave me a suspicious look and asked “does he really know how to speak all those languages?”

After a short phone call to uncle Jamey, and some teasing, my kids had a new understanding on the power and capability of AI (no, he doesn’t speak all those languages, the computer did it for him). Like my kids, the concept of AI is beginning to move into our frame of familiarity, though it is still a bit unclear exactly how it will impact everyday life. If you’re like me, you can sense that it is already creating a powerful technological leap forward, and will unlock and enable many new forms of communication, analysis, and business functions at high degrees of efficiency, perhaps not unlike the impact of mass internet adoption. More importantly, AI needs to be viewed and analyzed through the prism of outreach and mission.

In this issue of InsideASI, we explore how several ministries are strategically deploying artificial intelligence within their respective ministry contexts to more effectively share the gospel. Lineage is exploring the medium of multiple language capabilities for their videos, while AudioVerse is leveraging AI to create a high-quality, cost-effective dramatized reading of Scripture. The Ellen White Estate is creating more powerful and effective methods to explore and interact with the writings of Ellen White.

As time progresses and AI continues to mature, new and groundbreaking use cases will become evident for the deployment of artificial intelligence to further the gospel. To that end, ASI Missions Inc. is allocating a portion of our 2024 offering overflow to establish a fund for future projects incorporating AI. Given the rapid development of AI technology, this foresight is to be applauded, and is sure to help promote a more efficient and effective use of our organizational funds to finish the work we have been charged with here on earth. Since the creation of my brother Jamey’s demo reel in 14 languages, he learned that HeyGen (www.heygen.com), the AI platform used to generate the reel, also offers a more efficient way to create videos in multiple languages—the use of an avatar. By sending in a professionally produced video, HeyGen will take that video and create a virtual version of Jamey that will look and talk just like he does. To animate his avatar, one simply needs to input a Bible study in English on the state of the dead, and the avatar will perform the script in up to forty different languages. Talk about efficient! While Tim Cook’s aspirational view of AI is encouraging, and I’m sure well-intentioned, we can be sure that AI will be leveraged both for the benefit of humanity, and also to its detriment, given the sinful world in which we live. Just as Gutenberg’s presses were used to print both the Holy Scriptures and Tetzel’s indulgences, AI will be used to great effect on both sides of the great controversy. May God grant us wisdom and discernment as we contemplate how to best deploy this powerful new medium to advance His cause.

Danny Houghton, ASI VP for Communication, serves as Chief Customer Officer for the family of health food brands known as Vibrant Health Products. He lives in Granbury, Texas with his wife Sondra and three young children, Andrew, Olivia and Layla.