Taking the Risk on AI: A Practical Approach for Biblical Entrepreneurs
Have you noticed? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is stealing the limelight. It’s showing up lately in every headline, every ad, every conversation. AI is heralded as the latest breakthrough tool to help humans improve efficiency and unleash creativity, disrupting every industry.
And though we are amazed at what AI can do, we still wonder:
“What is this exactly?”
“Can it be trusted?”
On July 17, I’ll be discussing how we can leverage AI in a way that is consistent with our values at the Nehemiah Entrepreneurship Community during our EC Global Forum on Kingdom Business and AI.
Much of the excitement is about how AI synthesizes vast amounts of data at lightning speed to make real-time decisions.
The problem is, unless those decisions are aligned with human values, we may not like them! For instance:
- If you tell a self-driving car to go from point A to point B, it can run over a pedestrian jaywalking unless you teach it to value people’s safety over speed.
- If you ask an AI chatbot to handle customer service calls, you’ll need to train it to value customer relationships, or it could spew insensitive comments based on a customer’s buying history.
- If AI isn’t taught to value truth and transparency, it can manipulate media and create ‘deep fake’ videos that misrepresent familiar faces and damage reputations.
Despite the possible benefits, AI isn’t perfect. But—why are we surprised?
AI is a tool created by humans. Creations reflect their creators, and humans are flawed. From the first axe to the printing press, telephones to the internet, humans have made decisions to use tools for good and evil since the beginning of time.
What’s different with AI is that we are asking the tool to make decisions FOR humans!
Generative AI has no context when it connects data from different sources, so it can easily be wrong. It doesn’t have a memory, so it can be unpredictable. Legitimate concerns about AI include security, privacy, bias, loss of jobs, and the vast amount of energy required to crunch all the data. It even raises more profound ethical questions about what it means to be human.
If AI has so much potential, how do we harness it for good?
Humans need to start teaching AI how to make good decisions. It starts with being clear about our OWN VALUES.
Values make decision-making easier. Your values guide how you evaluate options and make decisions every day. When you are clear on your values, your yes’s can be YES!, and your no’s can be NO!
Children who are taught right from wrong can make decisions easier, even when they are apart from their parents. In the same way, we need to “teach” our newest student, AI, how to recognize right from wrong, and how to be very clear about what we value.
THE ALIGNMENT PROBLEM
The disconnect between artificial intelligence and human values is a well-known problem in AI development circles. It’s called “The Alignment Problem” and people are jumping in from all angles to tackle it.
Open AI, the creators of ChatGPT, have an Alignment Research Center focused on ensuring that AI systems reliably follow human intent. The National Institute Of Standards and Technology (NIST) has produced an AI Risk Management Framework to provide guidance for organizations working with AI, including how to govern, map, measure, and manage it.
The faith-based community isn’t sitting on its heels: the Vatican, the World Council of Churches, and a variety of other Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist initiatives are actively involved to provide ethical guidelines for AI development and ensure AI integrates moral human values.
If AI is still so imperfect, should business leaders wait for everyone to sort things out before we use it? No. Engaging with AI now allows us to stay competitive while contributing to a global learning curve. The stakes are high, and being in the game is important.
This means we need to be “wise as serpents, harmless as doves,” firmly rooted in our Christian values while learning about and influencing AI’s future.
Here are three practical steps to engage now with AI wisely:
- Clarify Your Values
Your most important responsibility is to understand your own values. Know what you stand for and what is truth. Otherwise, you could end up taking shortcuts, just as disastrous as a self-driving car running over pedestrians.
The Nehemiah Entrepreneurship Community guides every business founder to invest the time upfront to clarify their life purpose and values—even before drafting a business plan! By knowing your personal values and making sure your own business is aligned with those values right from the start, you will make decisions more easily, lead others with integrity, and be able to articulate the values you want to use to teach AI.
- Openly Discuss the Risks
I work with leadership teams to navigate the risks of high-stakes strategies. To reduce anxiety, I encourage them to talk openly about these risks. While it may seem counterintuitive, openly discussing risks actually reduces anxiety and helps you and your team envision how to handle difficult situations if they were to arise.
Consider what value AI might bring to customers. How can it improve efficiencies? Openly discuss what harm AI might cause and the assumptions are you making. As you talk through all the scenarios, including the possible disasters, you and your team will become more comfortable with where to start piloting AI and what you want to learn from it.
- Provide Guidance and Guardrails
God created humans in His image and gave us dominion over the world. He encouraged us to step out, use our gifts of creativity, and make the most of what He’s given us, even if it means taking risks.
But God didn’t just say to humans, “Here’s the Earth. Good luck with that.” He gave us guidance and guardrails so we could be successful. The Ten Commandments, Christ’s parables, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian community all help provide context even as we learn.
In the same way, as you apply AI in different situations for your organization, you can establish guidelines for how AI will be used. Define ethical standards to ensure AI is being used responsibly and in alignment with your values. Go back and monitor to ensure that AI is actually working as you expected it to, adapting as you learn.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has great potential, but it is a work in progress. That doesn’t mean we should shy away from exploring how to leverage AI for our businesses today. Let’s teach AI to help mankind accomplish the good works that God has prepared us to do!
Join me at the EC Global Forum on Kingdom Business and AI where we’ll be talking with Christian entrepreneurs who are already doing it!
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