Before Christmas there was some conversation among our life group about whether or not singing songs produced by AI counts as worship.
To answer that question, I think we have to answer two further questions. The first is “What is an AI song?” The second is “What is worship?”
What is an AI song?
We might borrow from Margaret Thatcher to say that there is no such thing as AI, rather, there are humans who create the programming and algorithms to generate computer responses to other humans who frame questions and requests.
What this means is that there are two sets of humans involved in the generation of an AI worship song. There are those who have been involved in the programming of the AI program, then there is whoever framed the question, requesting a specific form of song
Now, there is a skill and art to both. The former is more obvious and arguably the greater skill. However, there is some skill involved in how we frame questions in order to get the best answers
What is worship
Worship is simply about giving worth and glory to someone or something. We normally and rightly apply this to worship of God.
Scripture tells us that all creation worships God to the point where Jesus insisted that if he forbid praise from children, then even the stones would cry out praise. Not that they would literally start speaking but that their very existence glorifies their creator
We are told in Romans 12 to present ourselves as living sacrifices and this is our worship. The whole of your life is worship because all that you say, think and do gives glory to someone or something and should give glory to God your creator and redeemer
How this helps answer the question
These two points help us answer the question about whether AI worship songs are worship in two parts.
First, there are two senses in which the production of the song is worship. The programme itself worships as part of creation, even an artificial and non sentient part of it, just like the stones.
Second, the programmer and requester are involved in worship as by indirect means they are the true composers.
The bigger questions then are around who they worship, which will depend on the state of thei heart and whether this is good and healthy worship . They may be seeking to glorify themselves and the technology meaning that their heart is not on worshipping God although there is a sense in which they cannot avoid glorifying him.
The requester has “worshipped” but I’m reminded of King David’s insistence that he would not bring an offering that cost him nothing. So I don’t think that this is a means by which we produce lyrics. It costs us little and distracts from the right honour of humans who do use their gifts and talents to write songs
What this also means is that the people singing the song are “worshipping”. They are declaring God’s praises. In that respect, it doesn’t matter where the song came from. We don’t know the heart state of songwriters when they composed their music. Further, there are even examples in Scripture of things that were not inspired special revelation when composed, spoken or written by people that did not know the Lord but which became part of Scripture and therefore inspired.
However, this is different to the question “should we sing them?” I think that the answer is that we can sing them, it is permissible. However there are other reasons why perhaps we should not. The issue is less about whether they count as worship and more about whether they give right honour to God given skills and gifts. I would argue that because it distracts from the gifts and skills of actual composers and in fact is drawing on their gifts without acknowledging that, then we should not.
Faithroots 