Help! I'm a Christian entrepreneur who uses AI...but should I?

Dear Church,

I need your help.

Last week I posted an update to my LinkedIn network about a project I have been working on. It’s called Berea, an edtech web app that gamifies and simplifies theology. I don’t want to say: “Think Duolingo but for theology” because there are at least two other apps out there with the same strapline - but that is, essentially, what it is (but perhaps a little bit less devotional and a bit more academic).

I am a solo founder without any employees, meaning it’s just me. You might be thinking that I am a software engineer or a computer science graduate. Wrong. I have theology degrees and an MBA. Maybe I learned how to code from an online course? Nope. Perhaps, I hired a contract coder from Fiver? Wrong again.

Let’s not make the same mistakes we did with social media. We allowed the world to dictate how it should be used. We didn’t lead; we just followed

So how have I built an app? I am using Lovable, a no-code/vibe coding platform. In simple terms, this means I can speak in plain English to a chatbot and, within two hours, it can build a fully functioning app. Lovable (and its competitors) give non-technical folks like me the opportunity to turn our software dreams into reality, in days rather than years, for hundreds of pounds instead of thousands.

No-code tools give people the opportunity to generate real income in a matter of weeks. And what is more interesting, this wasn’t possible this time last year! If you have heard about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution, this is a real-life example of what the media keeps trying to tell us. We are living in it right now.

But why am I writing this letter? Last week I realised something. I made a joke about it, but it made me wonder. I’m not really a solo founder. My co-founder is AI.

A new theology

I discovered I don’t really have a theology for this. And the more I go down this rabbit hole - as I use ChatGPT to help me develop marketing strategies and copy for my ads, Mobbin and Figma to help me design high quality user interfaces for my app, or Heygen to create an AI avatar of myself for TikTok videos - I am wondering: Is this the right thing to do?

Lovable’s growth has been exponential. In just seven months since launching, it has reached $75m in annual recurring revenue from monthly subscriptions. It recently became Sweden’s latest unicorn (a company valued at $1bn) with a team of just 45 people! Before AI, this simply wasn’t possible -  but it’s far from unique. According to Lovable’s CEO, 100,000 start-ups are created every month using Lovable. 

Despite this good economic news and being a (mostly) happy customer. I can’t help thinking: What does my use of AI mean for my Christian faith? Does it align with my values? At what point do I shape - and not just exist - at the cutting edge of culture?

Environmental impact

It’s hardly ever spoken about, but AI has a huge environmental impact. A typical data centre uses between 11-19 million litres of water per day just to cool its servers. That’s the equivalent of a small town of 30,000-50,000 people. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that, by 2030, that there will be a doubling of electricity demand from data centres globally – which equates to slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan. This growth will be driven predominantly by the use of AI in the USA, China, and Europe.

What does this mean for my belief in the stewardship of the world’s resources? I had this same question when the ChatGPT Barbie trend was doing the rounds. At the height of that trend, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI actually took to social media to ask people to slow down on creating images because their servers were overheating. Shouldn’t the Church have something to say about this? Not just as a critique of the culture, but to equip people like me.

Culture and values

Another thing I am struggling with is community and jobs. One of the best things about creating a business is employment. But in this new AI world, productivity is increasing with far fewer people. Start-ups are becoming more efficient - and arguably stewarding their resources far better than ever before. A business no longer needs $1m of investment to build a product over two years. This should be a good thing. But what happens to the people who would have otherwise been employed? What will be the long-term impact to our communities? How should a Christian entrepreneur navigate this tension?

It’s hardly ever spoken about, but AI has a huge environmental impact

I am a creator. I write and podcast. AI tools scrape the Internet to get the information I need to solve my problems. In crude terms, they are basically stealing from creators to help me. I mentioned Mobbin earlier. Mobbin is a database of thousands of apps and websites. For a subscription, I can basically ask it to show me all of Duolingo’s customer flows and user interactions. I can then paste them into Lovable and ask it to create a workable copy for my app in less than two hours. But is that stealing? Would I do this in the real world? How would I feel if someone did this to my work?

AI also tells lies. When I started developing my app, Lovable would inflate what the app could do. It would also make up good reviews and make wild claims about the number of users and people on my waitlist. I had to keep telling it that lies are not part of my value system, so I don’t want them on my website - especially as I am building a Christian app. Should I be partnering with a proven liar?

Ahead of the curve

Church – I am asking for your help, before it’s too late. Can we start having serious conversations about AI? It isn’t something in the distant future that is coming to steal our jobs. It is here, right now. Many of us are knee deep in, but we don’t have any theology to deal with it.

Let’s not make the same mistakes we did with social media. We allowed the world to dictate how it should be used. We didn’t lead; we just followed - and now, we are dealing with a whole host of issues. Our society is more divided than ever before. People are more anxious, depressed and lonely. We have image problems, suffer identity crises, are always distracted and are far more envious and angrier than ever before. Imagine if we had been more engaged in the early 2000s and took the time to understand what social media was. Perhaps things might be different.

This is a real opportunity. Most people don’t really know or understand what is going on in the world of AI. Now is the time for the Church to equip itself, develop a robust theology and shape the culture. It’s urgent, this is a now thing because I can guarantee you that by the time you read this letter, everything that I have written about AI will probably be out of date.