Ultimately, neither in humans nor in AI can we promote the greater good simply by relying on “do not ...” guardrails or constraints

Discipleship is a covenant journey. AI is a tool. When we rely on the Spirit, practice wisdom, and choose trusted sources, technology can help us deepen our relationships with God (Thou), self (I), others (They), and the natural world and environment (It).

In our conversation, I invited us to first set guidelines for how you will use AI, so AI does not get between you and your personal relationship with God.

Second, write down three truths about who you are: a child of God, a child of the covenant, and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Place them somewhere visible; each time you see them, pause and remember.

Third, send one thoughtful message that you write yourself or visit in a personal and meaningful way a family member, friend, roommate, or neighbor.

Fourth, spend meaningful time in nature. Silence your notifications.

Offer a prayer of gratitude for the beauty and testimony of all the things that denote the natural order and the loving purposes of God, the Great Creator.

In a world of accelerating technology and artificial intelligence, may we never lose the divine intelligence that matters most: the voice of God. May we listen for His whisper amid the noise. Love one another beyond algorithms, and steward creation and the environment with reverence.

In conclusion, to chart our best future in an age of artificial intelligence, we need what the poet W.B.

Yeats called our “deep heart’s core.” Ultimately, neither in humans nor in AI can we promote the greater good simply by relying on “do not ...” guardrails or constraints, particularly at this critical juncture in AI capacity and potential. We owe it to ourselves to prioritize AI, which increases opportunities for what I call an “AI gift of human possibility.” An authentic AI gift of possibility can expand human agency and dignity; prioritize learning and enlarge human character; and empower individuals to find dignity, place, and purpose as each contributes to the greater good. I want AI to be morally grounded and to have a moral compass. I want AI which inspires and enables anyone, anywhere, to have the possibility to become anything. We should design AI to help give this gift of possibility to all.

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

Step outside digital reality into physical reality. Be spiritually present in the moment.

Can we use AI to deepen experience with nature?

Yes.

A chatbot can suggest hikes, parks, seasonal activities. It can create a nature scavenger list. It can identify plants or insects. But the real exploring happens when we go exploring.

Step outside digital reality into physical reality. Be spiritually present in the moment. Invite friends or family, but put your device away. When we step outside, we step into God’s classroom.

Nature teaches patience as seeds grow, humility as storms pass, and joy as sunlight warms the earth. These lessons are not downloaded, they’re lived. As we reverence in and care for creation, we honor the Creator. Every breath of fresh, crisp air can spark gratitude. Intentionally choose moments that gladden the heart and lift the soul.

Technology can inform us, but without the Spirit, it cannot transform our nature or our being.

Let us wisely use AI and technology tools to deepen faith and spiritual understanding, strengthen relationships and families, and instill reverence and gratitude for God’s creations.

 

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

Excessive screen time also comes at a high opportunity cost.

Excessive screen time also comes at a high opportunity cost. Imagine all the things we could do with that time. So, as the saying goes, please make time to “touch grass.” If you find you’re more comfortable on your phone than with people, or that it’s keeping you from the delight, serendipity, and spontaneity inherent in God’s nature, now’s a good time to change.

Find again the serenity, calm, and assurance that come when we re-immerse ourselves in the order and beauty of creation. Let quiet, natural places put our daily personal concerns in perspective. Watering a plant, nurturing a garden; they can restore equilibrium. It can uncrowd an apartment. It can unclutter a mind.

Watch the leaves dance with the first kiss of light. Pause as the sun paints the clouds with God’s palette. Listen to the stories the constellations tell as they wheel through the expanses of the heavens. It takes conscious effort to slow down. God’s goodness can enrich our souls.

Today’s noisy, cluttered, polluted world can make it hard to “be still and know that I am God.” We curate life to be “insta-perfect,” even though we know insta-perfect is neither insta nor perfect. Only when we turn off the kitchen fan do we remember how noisy it is. Sometimes slowing things down, those things that matter less, helps us find the things that matter most. In an age of AI, what tech insiders warned earlier is even more true now. If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.

 

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

Digital exchanges are at best a poor substitute or, at worst, a counterfeit for what we live through our senses, hearts, and minds.

Beauty, says author Marilynne Robinson, is the “signature of God.” An important way to know God is to discern his signature in creations made to gladden the heart.

Imagine you’re preparing for a wilderness hike. You light a single candle as you assemble your maps, food, sleeping bag, tent, and so on.

Because of the light in the room, you do not notice the candle. Now imagine you turn off the light in the room. Now the candle shines clear and bright. It illuminates the room. It was not that the lit candle was invisible before, it was that the room’s artificial light obscured the lit candle’s natural light.

In some ways, we need to be in nature, away from the artificial light and the artificiality which crowds so much of modern life. There we can see God’s light, not as a single candle, but, as E.B. White put it, as “the combustion of stars.”

Digital screens can serve us, but they can’t substitute for the testimonies of nature and the natural world. AI cannot replace sunlight, wind, and natural wonder. Digital exchanges are at best a poor substitute or, at worst, a counterfeit for what we live through our senses, hearts, and minds.

Our physical and spiritual senses and abilities are God-given, in part so we can experience time, space, and physicality, including the stunning, revitalizing beauty of our physical world and environment.

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

We move into a gray area when we think AI can counsel us on personal questions

Compassion, kindness, optimism—they require lived experience and authentic relationships. Faith and authenticity are manifest when we commit that no one sits alone. “No one sits alone” means no one sits alone spiritually or emotionally. Especially no one should sit alone, lonely or emotionally dependent, with an AI chatbot. Monologue with an AI algorithm is different than dialogue with a human friend or family member.

We move into a gray area when we think AI can counsel us on personal questions, like which job to take or who to marry or where to find God. My heart goes out to those who confide for hours in AI chatbots, thinking those AI chatbots listen or know them; AI chatbots do not. Some AI chatbots only run algorithms designed to encourage more human screen time.

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

If we’re not careful, we may inadvertently allow algorithms to define us.

Artificial intelligence can manage inventory; spot consumer purchasing trends; tweak, monitor, and send personalized advertising messages to millions of people. Some want AI advice on matters of human judgment and interest, including things of the heart.

But in it all, please begin by knowing God’s plan for you. You are not a random data point in an unfeeling algorithm. You’re a beloved child of God, a child of the covenant, a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Your eternal worth is not calculated by likes, trend lines, or predictive analytics. No machine can measure your divine potential. Each individual matters. All of us are unique. If we’re not careful, we may inadvertently allow algorithms to define us.

Research shows some people overtrust AI. This is because we may think a chatbot knows more about the world than we do, or because we may think a chatbot does not have human problems. Technology cannot tell us who we are or what we should do. Our individual moral agency means we can choose, with God’s help, our path and priorities. God invites us to act in faith, choose wisely, and grow through lived effort and experience.

With God’s help, we can chart a path of personal growth and discipleship that algorithms will never fully comprehend. Let AI inform, but you decide with the Lord. Your identity and your agency are sacred.

Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

Three gospel-centered guideposts can guide our personal use of AI.

Three gospel-centered guideposts can guide our personal use of AI.

First, rely on the Spirit. Let technology support, not supplant, revelation, personal study, and covenant living. There is no substitute for “studying it out” in your own mind and feeling the Lord’s spiritual confirmation in your heart and mind.

Second, practice wisdom. Apply wise judgment informed by doctrine and our own lived experience.

Third, choose trusted sources. Anchor understanding in scripture, prophetic counsel, and reliable information. I’m inviting us to be thoughtful and intentional about our use of AI as a tool on our journey of discipleship.....

AI is not and cannot be God. AI can answer questions, but it cannot answer prayers. It may organize thoughts, but it cannot offer covenant relationships or blessings. Platforms and technologies cannot substitute for authentic, divine, and human connection.

 Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

The Ultimate Purpose of AI

I want AI and related technologies to change our world for the better; to narrow digital divides; to expand human flourishing; and to enhance faith, moral clarity, human meaning, and possibility.

I see artificial intelligence not only as a massively consequential technological development, but also as a profoundly significant moral opportunity to reflect on who we are and to determine how we act in today’s world. In this transformative era, I invite us to remember signpost truths.

As children of a loving God, we possess moral agency and the capacity for covenant community. We’re responsible and accountable for our choices. Our choices shape our judgment, character, and personal growth. We each have divine worth and dignity. Compassion and integrity are hallmarks of human trust, and for believers, manifest the way, the truth, and the life offered by discipleship in Jesus Christ. When we truly understand who we are, we can approach AI and other new technologies with greater confidence, purpose, and wisdom.

 

 Faith, Dignity, and Human Flourishing: Hearing God's Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence Elder Gerrit W. Gong June 7, 2026.

Too great care cannot be exercised that liberty shall not degenerate into license, and not to convert that which should furnish enjoyment and simple pleasure into a means of producing unhealthful excitement or corrupting morals.

 Social enjoyment and amusements are not incompatible with correct conduct and true religion. Instead of forbidding the theatre and placing it under ban, it has been the aim of the Latter-day Saints to control it and keep it free from impure influences, and to preserve it as a place where all could meet for the purpose of healthful enjoyment. Our leading men have, therefore, gone to these places with the view, by their presence, of restraining all practices and influences that would be injurious to the young and rising generation. Too great care cannot be exercised that liberty shall not degenerate into license, and not to convert that which should furnish enjoyment and simple pleasure into a means of producing unhealthful excitement or corrupting morals. … Committee-men and officers in charge should see that dances of every kind are conducted in a modest and becoming manner and that no behavior be permitted that would lead to evil or that would offend the most delicate susceptibilities

Chapter 11: Finding Joy in Life

John Taylor

Teachings of Presidents

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/chapter-11?lang=eng&verse=#p

They need to be our servants, not our masters.

 Handheld devices, such as smartphones, are a blessing, but they can also distract us from hearing the “still, small voice.” They need to be our servants, not our masters. For example, if later tonight you share inspiring thoughts from this devotional on social media, your smartphone is a servant. If you randomly surf the Internet, your smartphone is a master.

Be Still and Know That I Am God, M. Russell Ballard, May 4, 2014

Turn off social media and other outside distractions from time to time to sit and talk and enjoy each other’s company.

Some of you may be overprogrammed with lots of activities, including good ones. Please be careful not to overprogram your children. Turn off social media and other outside distractions from time to time to sit and talk and enjoy each other’s company. As I recently taught in general conference, regularly hold a family council (see “Family Councils,” Ensign, May 2016, 63–65).

Remember, the Lord counseled us to find time to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10; see also Doctrine and Covenants 101:16).

To keep family members occupied and away from what matters most, someone is always creating something new—a new app or game, for example, that prompts young people to look down at their smartphones rather than up to see the beautiful creations of God’s wonderful world or even someone they may want to meet, date, and marry and with whom they could have a real-world relationship that results in eternal blessings.

An Epistle from an Apostle

September 2019

Ensign

M. Russell Ballard

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2019/09/an-epistle-from-an-apostle?lang=eng&verse=#p