Teams had a 30-day window prior to the event to work on their projects; during that window, they could build on existing technology. However, they were judged only on code written and progress made during the actual hackathon.
Competitors had from 9 p.m. Wednesday to 9 p.m. Thursday to create a solution using AI to solve a problem, all with the aim of glorifying God and promoting human flourishing.
“How should followers of Jesus live faithfully in an AI-shaped world?” Stetzer asked attendees during the opening session. He encouraged hackers to think “Christianly” about their efforts and exhorted those present to remember that AI is part of God’s creation and, as such, under God’s authority. AI is not made in the image of God, and, like everything else in the world, it is impacted by the fall.
Stetzer outlined three core values the hackathon’s leaders have agreed upon: AI must be 1) safe, 2) biblically accurate, and 3) align with Christian values. In fact, Christians have a unique perspective when it comes to determining how to use AI. “There’s not a lot of people having a moral conversation about AI because they don’t have the tools to start a moral conversation about AI,” Stetzer observed.
If someone is coming from “a purely secular worldview, upon what basis do you make decisions of what’s good and what’s bad?” Stetzer said to ChurchLeaders. “What’s going to produce human flourishing beyond that people have, you know, food and shelter but that they [also] have meaningful lives?”
Regarding whether pastors are more open to AI than they were a year ago, Stetzer said, “I think we’ve moved away from a lot of the fear,” although he added, “I think some have embraced it in ways that I’m not thrilled with.” He gave as an example using AI to write sermons.
“That’s not good for your soul or your congregation,” said Stetzer.
It’s easy to think of numerous dangers involved in using AI, but are there dangers that pastors are unaware of? “I think so,” said Stetzer. “I think, for example, right now…there are a lot of young men who are creating their AI companions.”
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“I think that one of the things that we need to be aware of is, there is a significant, growing group of people who are isolated from society who are finding an AI relationship,” he said. “I think that’s now a mainstream issue. And so I think pastors may not be aware of that.”
