What Would Jesus Tech

Kevin Tuer received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1994, and went on to a number of strategic leadership roles, including VP of Engineering at Control Advancements, Co-founder of Handshake VR, the founding Managing Director of the Candian Digital Media Network, and he currently serves as the Cheif Technology Officer at Communitech.

Today we have a wide-ranging conversation related to Kevin's new initiative, the Good AI program. Good AI helps startups strengthen the development, understanding and implementation of ethical AI. They're helping to build actionable strategies to enable Canada's tech founders to create trustworthy AI products and services, and build a brand that customers know they can trust.

0:00 - Into and Background

6:09 - The Tension Btw Innovation and Responsibility

12:45 - Collectively Working On Ethical AI

20:30 - Innovation as Stewardship

25:10 - Who Do We Hold Responsible for AI Failures?

33:55 - Ethics by Design

41:29 - All Ethics Under God

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

What does it look like to listen, to truly listen, in a noisy world?

Today we're joined by Jay Y. Kim, author of Listen, Listen Speak: Hearing God and Being Heard in a Noisy World.

Some Christians emphasize listening as the ultimate form of love, which can lead to passivity. Others emphasize the courageous proclamation of truth, which can lead to arrogance. Jay encourages us to listen and speak and tells us how.

0:00 - Intro

2:01 - Jay's Background

4:47 - Digital Informs, Analog Transforms

8:34 - Are Churches Behind in Using Tech?

16:14 - Fixating on the future vs Prayer

20:45 - Headphones in Grocery Stores

29:05 - Cacophanies, Distress, and Reason

36:53 - Speaking Up On Controversies

48:43 - Awkward Silence on Elevators and WWJD?

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

A core theme in the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once is how we experience a disconnected, anxious, and nihilistic technological world. The movie was about social media, the Internet, and how the digital age has disembodied us, making us feel like we have access to a multiverse via the World Wide Web.

But now, we have AI. The stability that remains is shifting. In this episode, we recap some of the changes we're seeing in the AI space. We also discuss some key aspects of AI "wrappers" and RAGs (Retrieval-augmented generation), which are being used to increase the accuracy of generative AI models with facts fetched from external sources.

Basically, AI is rapidly changing. This episode tells you what those changes are.

To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech or to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Sources/references in this video:

Devin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjHtjT7GO1c

Groq - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UzW_AGX68g

Sora AI - https://openai.com/sora

OpenAI's CTO with a non-answer on where the training data comes from - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAUpxN-EIgU

- Tik Tok Ban https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68556540

- Elon Musk suing Open AI https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-sues-openai-ceo-sam-altman-breach-contract-2024-03-01/

- Klarna AI Assistant replacing customer reps https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke.

What is philosophy? How does it help us in our pursuit to understand how to live in our world? And how does living in our technological world, or "technoculture," affect our beliefs in God? Today we're joined by Dr. Joseph Minich, the author of Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age.

There are two main parts to this episode. In the first half, we discuss ancient philosophy and it's significance to techies. In the second half, we dive into the thesis of Minich's book, and how our sense of God's existence has changed in our modern secular age.

Minich's Books:

• Enduring Divine Absence
• Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age
• He is also the co-author of various other works including Protestant Social Teaching: An Introduction, Philosophy and the Christian: The Quest for Wisdom in the Light of Christ, and People of the Promise: A Mere Protestant Ecclesiology.

Other resources referenced:

• Jesus the Great Philosopher: Rediscovering the Wisdom Needed for the Good Life by Jonathan Pennington

Chapters:

0:00 - Intro

2:30 - What is Philosophy and Why is it Important for Christians?

7:25 - Joseph Minich's Journey into Philosophy

13:45 - Retrieving Older Philosophical Traditions

19:18 - Retrieving Older Philosophical Traditions

26:54 - The Impact of the Technological Age on Belief in God

35:16 - The Loss of Agency in Modern & Future Labor

45:42 - Reframing Work, Reclaiming Agency, and Finding Purpose

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

As CES24 proved, robots are on the rise. But is this like an IoT (Internet of Things) fad, or is AI on legs here to stay? Andrew learns from Joel, as he unpacks some of the new technologies making it easier to *feel* like you're in the same room as someone else. And Joel asks Andrew to assess this theologically as well as practically, for "virtual church" and for each imitator of Jesus.

0:00 - Intro & Background

1:45 - IoT vs Embodied AI - just another trend?

5:40 - CES24, Apple Vision Pro, MetaVision, AR & VR

9:30 - Holotiles, Simulating Smell, and New Tech

11:20 - Don't Underestimate Physicality

17:35 - If The Tech Gets Better Though...

25:33 - What Makes Virtue Church Unacceptable?

31:15 - Would Jesus Use Embodied AI?

Things & Books Referenced

• Figure 01, a humanoid robot being built by a startup called Figure
• Video on disembodied AGI- Sanctuary AI company (shows robot control) 
• Video of Disney’s HoloTiles Full Original - 
• Lex/Zuck Interview 
• Simulating Smell 
• Analog Church - Jay Y. Kim
• The Life We're Looking For - Andy Crouch
• What God Has To Say About Our Bodies - Sam Alberry
• Cultural Mandate, Grey Sutanto - Themelios
• Grace Restores Nature - Grace In Common Podcast
• One Assembly - Jonathan Leeman
• What Is A Church? The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke.

To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Will Robotics have its ChatGPT moment? Will Elon Musk become a Christian? Will the 2024 elections be overcome by artificial images? From multi-model AI to deepening embodied desires, Joel Jacob (Product at Splunck) and Andrew Noble (Pastoral Ministry at Grandview Church) predict what they think might happen in 2024.

0:00 - Intro

1:45 - Cisco bought Joel's company. Is he out of a job?

4:02 - 2023 trend: increasing mental health concerns for teens

5:45 - 2023 trend: rise of AI

6:45 - Prediction 1: Multi-modal AI & Robotics

9:30 - Prediction 2: The Increasing Artificiality of the Internet (and a pull to embodied relationships)

12:25 - Prediction 3: Small Uptick in "Metaverse" Adoption (AR & VR traction via Apple & Meta)

18:09 - Prediction 4: A Big Tech Leader Will Become A Christian (and conversely, the rise of techno-religion)

27:36 - Prediction 5: The Inflection Point For Robotics

31:19 - Prediction 6: A New Analogue Dating App Is Coming (wildly specific prediction from Andrew)

35:06 - Prediction 7: The Crypto Winter Ends (it will become harder to mine Bitcoin again in April 2024)

Links:

- Rex Woodbury's 2024 predictions

- What Would Jesus Tech website

- Support us on Patreon

Complete our listener feedback survey! Link: https://forms.gle/pmi9jWf65cjGFn2TA

What happened at OpenAI? And why does it matter? How should Christians prepare for a world increasingly mediated through Artificial Intelligence?

In this episode, we brought on the author of the Church and AI Substack, Dave Betts, as well as The Gospel Coalition's Austin Gravely.

Links:

- Listener feedback survey: https://forms.gle/pmi9jWf65cjGFn2TA

- https://www.churchandai.com/

- https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/

Please send us your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

We need to get serious about what social media is doing to teenagers without throwing out technology altogether. That's what this episode is about.

Right before American Thanksgiving, a redacted lawsuit between a coalition of 41 US states and Meta (Instagram) was made public. This lawsuit outlines exactly how Instagram has knowingly harmed teens and lied about it to the public. As msn.com put it, "Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta could protect teen girls but puts $270 profit from each of them first: suit."

In this episode, we talk with a veteran youth pastor John Perritt, who is the dad of a few teenagers himself as well as the Director of Resources at Reformed Youth Ministries. We are also joined by Erica Bechtel: mom of three, Instragram influencer (@doityourself_mom), and a volunteer at a local youth ministry.

Together, we aim to support teens and the supporters of teens in this special episode of What Would Jesus Tech.

John's book: Social Media Pressure: Finding Peace Alongside Jesus

Other links mentioned:

Digital Liturgies by Samuel James

Teaching kids how to code with Swift Playgrounds

Chris Martin: Instagram Addicted Your Teenager Because She's Worth $270 to Them

Jason Kint's 20 tweet summary here: X link.

The full 233 page lawsuit between the states and Meta: pdf link.

Please send us your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

What were the similarities in the last two technological revolutions? How might this affect us in our current age? And how do we make disciples? In this episode, we chat with Jake Meador, the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy, an online magazine covering the Christian faith in the public sphere. Jake wrote What Are Christians For?, which led to some of our questions, while others (especially related to futurism and C.S. Lewis) were more curiosity-based. We hope you enjoy this episode!

0:00 - Intro

3:30 - Speed Round Questions

7:30 - The Discipleship Gap

11:30 - Similarities In The Industrial And Sexual Revolutions

17:10 - How The Digital Revolution's Placates Analysis Paralysis

22:57 - Could We Have Gone Through The Revolutions More Faithfully?

28:55 - But Won't Future Technology Correct Our Current Problems?

33:02 - Take Advantage of Tech With Mere Orthodoxy?

37:55 - Growing Embodied Communities

44:31 - A Tech Futurist Hypothetical

47:29 - Read C.S. Lewis' Space Triology! Here's why.

Books/Links:

• What Are Christians For?: Life Together at the End of the World by Jake Meador
• In Search of the Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World by Jake Meador
• Pandora, AI Girlfriends, and “Reborn” Babies by Nadya Williams
• The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality by Glen Scrivener
• A Quiet Mind to Suffer With: Mental Illness, Trauma, and the Death of Christ by John Andrew Bryant
• Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich
• Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman
• The Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Please send us your ideas and feedback to Joel Jacob and Andrew Noble [email protected]. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Matthew Chan was born in San Francisco, raised in Hong Kong, and is now on a journey that only God knows in full. He's written code for Francis Chan, built apps for The Bible Project, and now he and his friends at Basil Tech are about to launch a brand new product. Matthew is an inspiration for technologists looking to build technology for Christians.

* BasilTech: https://www.basiltech.org/

* BibleDojo: https://www.enterthebibledojo.com/

* ReadScripture: https://www.readscripture.org/

* WeAreChurch: https://wearechurch.com/

* ScriptureLabs: https://www.scripturelabs.com/

* Streetlights Bible: https://www.streetlightsbible.com/

* Larry Hurtado: Destroyer of the Gods

* WWJT Episode on Dating Apps: https://www.whatwouldjesustech.com/all-episodes/11-yes-christians-should-use-dating-apps-with-ruth-cuthbert

Your comments, questions, and ideas are welcome! Send them our way at [email protected]

Co-hosted by Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Website Design by Zeke Gancena. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com