A group of evangelicals is urging President Trump to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) while finding an ethical way to utilize it at the same time. Around a dozen evangelical leaders addressed a letter to President Trump with the title “Christianity in the Age of AI: An Appeal for Wise Leadership.” The signees called AI “the greatest scientific breakthrough since the Industrial Revolution” and dubbed the President the “AI President.” “As people of faith, we believe you are the world’s leader now by Divine Providence to also guide AI,” the group noted. They also acknowledged that AI “represents an opportunity of great promise but also of potential peril,” particularly as “artificial general intelligence” becomes a reality. Time describes artificial general intelligence as “a form of AI that can do any task better than a human expert.”

The group referred to how Elon Musk, who has worked closely with the President since the start of his presidency, warned of the potential of mass suffering and Bill Gates stated the technology could lead to mass unemployment. However, despite the acknowledged difficulties of the technology, the group referred to themselves as “pro-science,” with a desire to see AI advance “responsibly.” Their suggestion was that the president create an AI council or delegate it to an existing agency that would “pay attention especially not only to what AI CAN do but also what it SHOULD do.” The group concluded that it was necessary that the United States be the unmistakable leader in the AI race. The group’s hope is that AI could be used to cure diseases and solve problems without making work obsolete or encouraging idleness in humanity. “One does not have to be religious to recognize religion as a type of compounding wisdom over the centuries, and virtually all religious traditions warn against a world where work is no longer necessary or where human beings can live their lives without any guardrails,” the letter warned.

The group admonished President Trump to lead the Age of Intelligence wisely “for such a time as this,” referencing the line from the book of Esther when Queen Esther is called to risk her life in order to save the Jews from complete destruction. “Principles, rooted in our shared values, must inform our approach to AI development as we work together to make America great and to make our shared world safe,” the letter concluded.

Johnnie Moore, one of the signees of the document, describes himself as an AI “alarmist” and “accelerationist.” “We have to move faster than any country in the world and achieve maximal innovation as quickly as possible to make sure we, and our allies, dominate this new age. But we have to recognize how disruptive and potentially dangerous this technology can be if we do this irresponsibly,” he told The Christian Post. The President has yet to respond to the letter, but AI has certainly presented a number of ethical issues for Protestants and Catholics alike. The hit “House of David” on Prime was partly made possible on its shoestring budget thanks to AI. However, such use of AI also takes away work from creatives. The Vatican also warned against the possibility of idolatry as AI becomes more and more prevalent. “AI may prove even more seductive than traditional idols for, unlike idols that ‘have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear’, AI can ‘speak,’ or at least gives the illusion of doing so,” the Vatican warned. “Yet, it is vital to remember that AI is but a pale reflection of humanity—it is crafted by human minds, trained on human-generated material, responsive to human input, and sustained through human labor.”