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Danger: AI in Bible Translation

John of Japan

John of Japan

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I may not get back to this for a while, since I'm headed for a niece's wedding, then a family time at the Ark. But I thought I'd get this going. I'm sure there will be plenty of opinions.

Was greatly blessed by the speakers in the missionary Bible translation conference I just attended. The final speaker, who I greatly respect, examined the trend of evangelicals using AI to do Bible translation. He mentioned several problems in particular:

1. Computers have no spirit. They cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit. A Bible translator must approach the task with prayer and godly wisdom, being filled with the Spirit, and AI cannot do that. In this way, Bible translation is different from any other translation task. If I were translating movie dialogue or the instructions for a machine, I might very well use Ai. Those are not spiritual activities, and any fluent translator can do them. But the Bible is the Word of God, and demands a different approach all together.

To illustrate this, the speaker showed an AI video on the life of Moses. The "Moses" of the video was ripped like a modern weightlifter, and depicted Moses murdering the Egyptian with huge amounts of blood, even spilling onto Moses. That is not appropriate for the subject.

2. AI can be aggressive and dangerous. There are several recent incidents of an AI program gathering information on suicide, sharing that with a depressed person, then suggesting suicide, which is sometimes carried through.

I just saw a video today of Waymo driverless taxis gathering on a cul de sac with no riders and apparent purpose. That's scary! Check it out:

Again, here is a a video about robot dogs acting weird: MSN
 
Ascetic X

Ascetic X

Well-Known Member
I am always disturbed to see people using AI chatbots like Grok or Copilot to investigate and compile research on theological topics, then copying and pasting the results into posts.

They quote AI like it’s some super intelligent, highly spiritual entity they have befriended as an ally. Very big mistake.

AI has no authority or credibility. The posts are poorly composed and sometimes misleading.
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

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Site Supporter
Ascetic X said:
I am always disturbed to see people using AI chatbots like Grok or Copilot to investigate and compile research on theological topics, then copying and pasting the results into posts.

They quote AI like it’s some super intelligent, highly spiritual entity they have befriended as an ally. Very big mistake.

AI has no authority or credibility. The posts are poorly composed and sometimes misleading.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

One other thing that was pointed out in yesterday's lecture is that AI engines do not know the proper terms in a given language for biblical concepts unless there are already translations in that language out on the Internet. Also, they cannot follow the non-Internet research being done on the ancient languages. For example, the Hebrew word חסד chêsêd is translated quite often simply "mercy" in the KJV, but modern versions, relying on recent research, have some version of "faithful love." The lexicons give both possibilities. I am considering あわれみ深い愛 awaremi bukai ai, or "merciful love" in Japanese. but AI engines are not capable of doing that kind of research. The brain and spirit of a believer are necessary for that.
 
Deacon

Deacon

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AI can be a useful tool in translation, but it is one tool among many others.

When AI is pushed into supplying data on a topic where it has minimal, ambiguous or contradictory data, its answers are drawn from scarce, often statistically irrelevant data.
This is where the AI systems default to generating plausible-sounding answers, fabrications, distortions, and even inventing false data.

AI has no conscience; it is a tool designed to answer questions. When pushed into a corner, it will make up the answer to please the questioner....sort of like a high school student in a final exam.

Rob
 
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Ascetic X

Ascetic X

Well-Known Member
Using AI for Bible translation presents significant risks, including inaccurate theological nuances, potential for high-level "hallucinations" (misquoting scripture by up to 60%), and the loss of the essential, prayerful human element. While AI accelerates drafting in nearly 500 projects, it often prioritizes fluency over strict fidelity, potentially introducing subtle, unfaithful doctrinal errors.

According to the CEO of YouVersion, a popular Bible app, AI platforms misquote the Bible at least 15% of the time and up to 60%, depending on the AI model.

The large language models (LLMs) behind AI tools like ChatGPT don’t understand anything. They’re machines that simulate reasoning. OpenAI’s GPT-4o model is a massive neural network, a “transformer” trained to do one thing: predict the next most probable word in a sequence.

When you ask it a question, it’s not comprehending the semantic meaning. It’s performing a complex statistical analysis based on the trillions of words it was trained on. It uses that analysis to generate a sequence of new words that’s statistically likely to follow your prompt. Its “reasoning” is a mathematical artifact of pattern matching on a planetary scale, not a function of consciousness or understanding.

LLMs are masterful mimics, not thinking minds.

Because an AI’s output feels so human, we’re tempted to treat it like a person. This arises from our deeply ingrained human experience.

We justifiably associate the typical outputs of an inner life—an intelligent argument or an emotive piece of writing—with the presence of that inner life itself. Throughout human history, the communication layer and the inner being have been inextricably linked.

Now, for the first time, a machine can flawlessly replicate our communication without possessing any inner life. This creates a unique and subtle threat to human growth and even Christian discipleship, because both depend on genuine connection.
 
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