Weekly Insights
What church leaders need to know about young people, dating, and Artificial Intelligence
Stat of the Week:
More than one in five boys or men (ages 13-39) are interested in dating an AI or virtual boyfriend/girlfriend (YPulse)
What It Means:
Headlines have for years warned, criticized, or otherwise lamented the growing tendency of young men to stay single rather than commit to marriage or longterm relationships. With some seeing this as a unique societal threat, others are approaching it as a social problem that can be addressed with a variety of different social, psychological, and political actions.
The tech wizards may preempt such efforts, however, and their interventions in the form of AI or virtual partners are becoming increasingly attractive options for the young, unhappily single or lonely. We may still be a long way off from a Westworld style AI-dystopia, but the rapid expansion of AI over the past several years puts us within striking distance of something akin to the AI future portrayed in the film, Her. Indeed, Joaquin Phoenix’s moving portrayal of a man falling in love with a virtual partner anticipates the growing interest in such “relationships” among boys and young men today.*
Fundamental Questions Posed by AI-Growth and Potential for “Relationships”:
As more and more people cultivate lives and personas in the virtual world (beginning with social media and extending into more expansive virtual realities), their openness to relationships based in or exclusively limited to such worlds will likely grow. Such a shift poses major questions for the church and society more broadly: questions about human dignity, the material aspect of our existence as flesh-and-blood human beings, the imago dei and human being in the modern world, and more. These questions should be carefully considered by church leaders and thinkers, as they already are in some circles.
On a more proximate level, however, are the questions these trends pose for community leaders in congregations. What does it mean for our community if more and more people are engaged in virtual “relationships” with chatbots or AI rather than the flesh-and-blood people in our physical, local community? Do these virtual relationships threaten our community or pose risks to it? How might these kinds of relationships diminish our capacity for handling the messiness and difficulties of relationships with real human beings? Is there a way to engineer chatbots or “AI-partners” so that they encourage social behaviors or attitudes, like empathy and communication skills?
Why It Matters:
Once considered a challenge for the church of the future, these questions are quickly becoming central for the church today. Church leaders, from the congregation to the academy and beyond, will need to consider and engage these questions in the months and years to come. As young people today become the leaders of tomorrow, the church has an opportunity to encourage a humane and mature approach to AI and the virtual world. The believing community lives in the hope and expectation of a new heavens and a new earth, so we are called to participate in Christ’s work of redemptive love in all spheres of our world today. Pursuing this work in realms both real and virtual can ensure that AI-dystopias are avoided in favor of a world where AI serves the cause of love and dignity for all.
*Though young women and girls also expressed an interest in virtual/AI relationships as a boyfriend/girlfriend, they were much less interested overall compared to male respondents: 5% among girls ages 13-17, 17% for women ages 18-24, and 13% for women ages 25-39.