As with any major transformative technological advance, be it writing, the alphabet, printing press, industrial revolution, digital computers, Internet, and now with Artificial Intelligence [AI], some have been reticent and resistant to adopting technology and, at times, even deprecated such advances.
What is AI? Why is it so significant? What potential does it have? This presentation will be a hands-on demonstration of some of the ways AI can be used redemptively to enhance biblical teaching, as implemented on the BiblicaleLearning.org Proverbs web page and beyond.
First, AI can take audio input and transcribe sermons, lectures, and video using Speech-to-Text AI tools. There will be a listing of several AI tools capable of doing transcription and an example will demonstrate the process, effectiveness, and its usefulness.
Second, AI is able to render good results translating from English into multiple languages. There will be a demonstration of the process of translation using Google Translate to transform the transcribed English video texts into 10.00 high frequency languages (Spanish, Chinese…).
Third, AI can summarize and construct study guides, white papers, FAQs, and even take a transcribed or video lecture and condense it into an interesting 2-person dialogue summarizing audio podcast. Google AI tool NotebookLM will be employed to develop these results. We will also briefly explore examples of taking longer-form videos, and using AI to automatically shorten them into video “shorts.”
Fourth, AI can create imaginative stories. Proverbs are often compressed stories (e.g. “is Saul among the prophets”). AI will be used in taking a compressed proverbial kernel from its original sitz im leben and popping it out into a modern story, illustrating, elaborating, and applying it in a modern context. AI can then be used to visualize it via Photoshop’s Firefly and/or Mid-Journey using prompts based on that story. Then, TTS (text-to-speech; Eleven Labs or Playth) AI tools will be employed to create the audio narrative. The audio narrative and images will then be combined into a flowing video of the digital story making a visual commentary based on the biblical proverb.
Finally, there will be an open discussion on AI tools the audience has found useful and their potential for biblical studies in both the church and the academy.