Not the Droids We're Looking For

 by Rebekah Robinson

Tick the box: I’M NOT A ROBOT. Identify the pictures with traffic lights or what-have-you. Grimace, or grin, according to the day. Think fondly of C-3PO and rather less fondly of Hal 9000.

Image: Rawpixel|iStock

These days, it’s getting harder and harder to tell fact from fiction. Bots sound like us now. I had two almost identical-sounding conversations with ‘Sharon’ on my phone before it occurred to me to ask, ‘Wait, wait, Sharon … are you a bot?’ The reply I got was extremely huffy: ‘I am a Digital Assistant!’ (Clippy at least never rang us up repeatedly to talk about solar!)

Not only that, but world events are the stuff of fantasy, and grimdark, at that. On the author front, people are now feeding bits of very old manuscripts to the Beast to see if it cries ‘Plagiarised!’ And — you guessed it — it sometimes does! Who knew Mary Shelley was secretly using ChatGPT in 1818?

For a very interesting, slightly heartbreaking, but ultimately helpful article on proving your from-scratch authorship, you might find this relevant.

(Yes, yes, Beck, we’re all very outraged about AI, stealing our fun, our voices, our work. Where are you going with this?) ←Hat-tip to the mighty Ruth Bonetti for this technique!

Do you remember the grunge/deconstruction phase of the 90s? All the glamorous excesses of the 80s were eschewed in favour of dressing down, gritty music, drilling fiercely to find the authentic. My prediction is that the current surfeit of airbrushed unrealism will soon wane in popularity against an upsurge in appreciation for the artisanal and the genuine.

This is especially relevant to writers because we are artisans. We take language and make it dance. We are not auto-tuned. We are the coalface of art, bespoke and irreplaceable. The Bible tells us our very hairs are numbered.* Science tells us our fingerprints — even those of twins — are unique.

Further, the presence of God is always supposed to be carried on the shoulders of humans. From the time He manifested His presence between the cherubim of the Ark to the incredible privilege of having Him live inside each redeemed heart, He has always wanted to include us in what He is doing. A cart won’t cut it. An answering machine won’t cut it. And so no matter how correct-sounding a sermon written by an LLM might be, it cannot by itself impart life. That is something God Himself does, and He seems to enjoy doing it through us. The Gospel is and always has been incarnational. He became one of us to invite us to become one with Him.

Within the scope of what God does on the earth, He calls us into community. Across our millions, we can do even greater works that He did rolling 12 deep.* Even in shopping, there's something about great customer service which far outstrips ‘Add to Cart.’ This goes double for writing stories that amaze and inspire, and interacting with people who are searching for connection to the Lord.

Your testimony matters, and so does your fictional narrative idea, and so does your gift of insight. Now and then, perhaps, we reinvent the wheel; but the wheel must be reinvented every generation. You might have noticed this in church songs: yesterday’s I See the Lord becomes today’s You Are Holy. Jesus, Just the Mention goes through What a Beautiful Name and comes out at Jesus, Be the Name. Each iteration of each great truth carries the flame of the Lord and the flavour of today's firebrand. All the glory is the Lord’s, but He stoops to share the joy with us.

AI will never replace or command the presence of God, and it will never be a substitute for the fellowship of believers. Trust Him — He knows what He’s doing. Remain at your post and stay the course, ‘for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.’*

Rebekah Robinson loves God and people, and writes about Christian living. A missionaries’ daughter, she was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and lives in Brisbane, Australia. She and her husband have two adult children. Freelancing as a graphic designer specialising in books, she enjoys singing, songwriting and worship leading, and may have a slight digital scrapbooking addiction.

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