AI and the issues of sources and copyright

I went to university in the dark old days, when we needed to do all the research ourselves. When I studied in my honours year, I needed to scour physical journal articles stored in a compactus in the bowels of the university library (yes, I’m that old!). I even needed to use microfiche for some of the sources I was reading, as well as ordering copies and translations of particular research papers from overseas libraries. Research was a careful, painstaking task. A lot of effort was put into ensuring that the articles were from reliable sources, reputable journals, and were accurately summarised in the final paper.

Thankfully, much research these days is much simpler. Most journal articles are searchable online. What required physical hunting through obscure facts is now much more easily accessible. There are real benefits to all of this.

AI promises to make this all easier again. Searching for articles is much faster and more intuitive. And AI summaries bypass the articles themselves if you want: you can get an AI summary of whatever you are looking for. Google now makes this the default top option when you search for anything. Previously hard-to-find information comes in a fraction of a second, summarised into a bite sized form that is easy to digest. It is quick, easy, and often correct.

So what’s the problem? There are some ethical and interpretative issues around using AI collected and summarised information Christians should be thoughtful about. Issues around sources and copyright are important for us to understand.

Let’s think about sources, which means where the information comes from. AI often hides this fact from you. It gathers information from the internet and any database it has access to and summarises it for you. It does ‘hallucinate’ at times, making up information it feels should exist but doesn’t. (There are cases of whole academic articles being cited that have never existed, for example). If we don’t know where the source of the information comes from, we don’t know whether to trust it. For example, you don’t want me to give you advice on how to fix your car! Much better to go to an experience mechanic. Not all sources will give reliable advice.

This is especially important for Christians. Anyone can put information on the internet. AI might have generated results from a range of theological perspectives and sources. They could come from a teenager in their parent’s basement or a liberal theologian. We must be careful. There is still value in reading and listening to sources you trust. Knowing and trusting a real-life pastor you can ask questions of is worth much more than the mysterious sources AI is drawing from. At the very least, we should look to find answers from authors we trust, and know where the information is coming from.

There is also the ethical issue of copyright. There are multiple court cases going on around the world dealing with this right now. All the large AI engines need information. They have obtained this, in many cases, by scouring copyrighted material, like books, without permission from the authors of those sources. This means that they are profiting off information that was not paid for properly, further damaging the livelihood of people who have done careful research and thinking. It is possible that the answer we have been given by AI is based, essentially, on theft.

How should Christians then think about sources and AI? Personally, I prefer to be old school with this. I like to look up authors I trust, or at least find out where the information has come from. I don’t want to accept anything I don’t know the source of. Why should I trust some AI engine and its algorithm to be correct on spiritual matters?

As with any technology, consider the good and the bad. The information might be correct but we don’t know the source. Or it might be incorrect. Don’t blindly trust what AI gives you. We need to use our brains well to honour God with our thinking.