Misreading Scripture With Artificial Eye Sparknotes

In Misreading Scripture with Artificial Eyes by John Boyles, Professor Boyles tests Artificial Intelligence (AI), known as ChatGPT, and its ability to interpret Scripture. He tests this by asking ChatGPT to interpret the Sermon on the Mount and a couple other Scriptures and finds some important takeaways that leads to a warning about AI and the interpretation of Scripture.
At first, and at surface level, the AI randomly metaphorizes and individualizes Scripture (Boyles, 2023). It tells us that it does not have personal beliefs and cannot interpret the Scripture. When asked about Matthew 5:29-30, it was firm in the fact it was metaphorical and not to be taken literally. This was odd considering it told us it was incapable of interpretation.

At first it did seem like it would be unable to, when asked about its interpretation it gave a blanket statement about how it would depend on an individual’s beliefs and values (Boyles, 2023). However, when you change how you ask the question, it will offer some sort of direct interpretation, completely contradicting what it said at the beginning. Professor Boyle did this by asking directly about Mathew 5:29-30, instead of asking about the Sermon on the Mount itself. The AI issued a response about it being metaphorical. I find this to prove just how unreliable it is. If you can alter an interpretation simply by rewording the question, it cannot be trusted. Interpretation can change but it should not be this easy to persuade someone to change the

We spoke about reason and what that means to interpretation and faith. In Week 5’s discussion we spoke about the authority and interpretation of Scripture. What I found relevant to this was that we absolutely need human reason to interpret Scripture. This is something that ChatGPT and other AI’s absolutely lack. So, seeing the direct results of lacking reason, makes it more clear why our discussion and lesson in Week 5 is important. Why reason is important to the interpretation of Scripture and why it is important to not disregard other texts to help us make these