Behind closed doors on Thursday, an array of San Francisco’s leading pastors, rabbis and ministers converged to figure out, among other things, “what it means to be human” in the age of artificial intelligence.
The people building AI want to figure it out with them.
Clergy from the city’s Catholic, Baptist, Orthodox and Episcopal churches, as well as Reform synagogues and a leader from the Muslim Impact Council, met at the University of San Francisco for the first of potentially several meetings planned to grapple with the technology — and set the stage for a larger citywide faith convening.
No media were allowed. That was for a reason: “This was the first time all of these folks were in the same room,” said Michael Pappas, a Greek Orthodox priest and executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council who called the meeting. The council is seen as an establishment organization of the city’s faith communities.
In attendance: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the San Francisco Archdiocese, Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco, Rev. Devon Jerome Crawford of the Third Baptist Church, and Rabbi Sarah Joselow Parris of Congregation Emanu-El, among others. It lasted three hours. “My gosh, we went on for quite a while,” Pappas said.
Some of the meeting’s guests had already, over the past year, met on their own initiative with leaders at Anthropic and other AI companies.
There may be more contact soon. Those in attendance said Anthropic reached out with an invitation to meet with this pastoral “working group.”
“The next step will be to sit at the same table with the folks who are developing this technology,” said Pappas. Like the other guests, Pappas has grappled with AI’s disruptions. In July, he delivered a sermon and benediction on the ethics of AI at Old First Presbyterian Church, citing Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” as a caution.
Religious leaders across the globe are confronting a technology that could affect how people think about human relationships, the exploitation of labor, social responsibility, and God.
In May, Pope Leo released his encyclical on AI, a dense and nuanced work of Catholic theology and social teaching that warned against a purely technical form of “salvation.” The night’s attendees cited that encyclical as an impetus for meeting, as did multiple faith leaders across the city who spoke with Mission Local about the urgency of developing a theology of AI.
The exact location of the clergy meeting was privileged information, except that it was somewhere at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco. Mission Local spent an hour sussing out the spot on campus, until around 6 p.m. when a stream of people, some in clerical garb, entered Lone Mountain Residence Hall, walked into a carpeted reception room and mixed.
A university staffer politely turned this news outlet away.
Rev. Peter Levenstrong, a priest at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, spoke afterward with Mission Local about the meeting: “The question of personhood is the most important theological and political question of the 21st century, and I expect it to be the most important question of my life,” he said. “I’m really grateful we talked about that.”
“Personhood” implies a belief that all humans are created by God, in the image of God. A chatbot achieving consciousness is part of that personhood question, Levenstrong said. “But also, if AI can do more and more of our work, where does human dignity and agency derive from?”
Levenstrong, who said his congregation includes an uneasy mix of artists and AI builders, had already met with Anthropic executives and some faith leaders in March. He said he’s open to the forthcoming Anthropic meeting.
“My sense is Anthropic is not trying to convince faith leaders that AI is conscious,” said Levenstrong. “But they are very interested in raising that question and not wanting it to be ruled out before it’s been given thorough treatment.”
Still, he added: “I have been in the room with other tech leaders who are saying things less cautiously.”
For other faith leaders, the issues are less lofty: Multiple San Francisco clergy told Mission Local that they know people have written sermons with AI, or that they are struggling with doing so themselves. Some voiced concern about congregants seeking out chatbots for guidance about faith.
People in her synagogue are using AI “more and more” to write their sermons, said Rabbi Mychal Copeland of Sha’ar Zahav, a Reform LGBTQ synagogue in the Mission, who did not attend Thursday’s meeting. “That’s hard for me.”
“It’s not about not using it — it’s ridiculous to say don’t use it — but how you use it is important,” Copeland added. “If someone signs up to teach, it’s because we want to hear from them … I don’t want to hear from AI. I don’t care what it has to say. I want to hear the thoughts of the person who is teaching our community.”
At Sha’ar Zahav, Copeland said, some members have disclosed seeking out chatbot advice for spiritual, existential or ethical dilemmas — things they might have discussed in the past with a rabbi or friend.
The topic has reached other synagogues. At Congregation Sherith Israel on California Street, Assistant Rabbi Sam Tygiel gave a sermon on AI on Oct. 16.
“What I noticed is, as I tried to gather data for the sermon, I kept being tempted to use AI to help me, so I wrote a sermon about that process — about when I was tempted, and why for the most part I chose not to,” Tygiel said. “I brought it into conversation with other Jewish texts.”
Rev. Victor Floyd of Calvary Presbyterian Church, on Fillmore Street, said he’s averse to using AI for sermons given risks around sourcing and environmental impacts. He does, however, use Claude for feedback on his sermons, and prep work.
But there’s one thing he’ll never let Claude touch: the church music.
Floyd recalled Calvary’s first in-person service after the pandemic, namely the moment the church’s music director sat at their organ.
“I heard him take a breath before he played. I broke down,” Floyd said. “I thought: This is what we missed.”
While he thought the church had done okay with pandemic-era remote services, Floyd said it occurred to him when he was back inside the church: “There are actual bodies and souls in the room.”
“This is the blood and sinew and what makes us what we are.”
