Image credited to Orthodox Observer/Dimitrios Panagos
Artificial intelligence can imitate human thought, but it cannot replicate spiritual understanding, Fr. John Chryssavgis told delegates during a June 30 panel discussion at the Clergy-Laity Congress.
Fr. John, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute’s Executive Director, was one of four panelists featured in “Artificial Intelligence and the Orthodox Mind: Theology, Discernment, and Red Lines,” a session presenting an Orthodox Christian framework for understanding AI, grounded in the theology of the human person, the distinction between intelligence and the nous, and the Church’s calling to discernment.
The panel was moderated by Fr. Gregory-Telemachos Stamkopoulos and also included His Eminence Metropolitan Philotheos of Thessaloniki, Prof. Christos Tsironis, and Prof. Symeon Paschalidis.
Part of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s “AI Red Lines in Orthodox Theology” project, supported by a grant from the Future of Life Institute, the panel identified five Orthodox “red lines” for AI: that it must never replace human responsibility, never replace human presence, never be confused with the nous, never reduce the human person to data, and never allow capability to outpace wisdom.
Fr. John opened his remarks by tracing the anxieties surrounding AI to older stories about the limits of human freedom, pointing to the myth of Prometheus and the Book of Genesis.
“The principal lesson gleaned from such texts is that we are not God,” Fr. John said. “Yet, most of us live as if we are God.”
He described a spiritual dimension to modern technology, calling algorithmic innovation a form of idolatry and cautioning that the companies developing AI are driven by profit rather than the wellbeing of those who use their products.
Fr. John connected this reality to a broader anthropocentrism.
“In contrast to the divine mandate in Genesis for us “to serve and preserve” creation,” he said, “we are developing AI with the assumption that its sole objective is to serve and preserve us.”
“We need to re-learn what it means to be a part—unique and indispensable, but one part—of creation. Otherwise, we will treat the world—both other human beings and the rest of creation—purely as raw material for consumption and exploitation,” Fr. John continued.
Fr. John also warned that AI may usher in newer, faster methods of injustice and discrimination.
“Algorithms—especially those that determine employment, housing, and healthcare—tend to replicate or reinforce already existing and deeply embedded societal biases,” he said. “AI is unlike previous technological revolutions—like the printing press or the television—because it can actually decide whom to help or heal, whom to overlook or hurt.”
Turning to the distinction between intelligence and nous, Fr. John invoked the patristic separation of “intelligence” (dianoia or mathematical thinking) from “intuition” (noesis or spiritual understanding). Artificial intelligence, he said, does not have a complex inner worlds, inner motivations, or an emotional landscape, and thus questions about meaning or hope will never be resolved through it.
Fr. John also offered a measured critique of the recent papal encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas. He observed that its title refers to human greatness rather than the glory of God, and noted that the piece opens with the story of the Tower of Babel rather than with the story of God’s covenant with Noah to preserve creation.
On approaching our creation “in the image of God,” Fr. John argued for balance. Genesis states that humanity is formed in God’s image, he said, but the same text also describes humanity as fashioned “from the dust of the earth,” sharing its day of creation with every other living creature.
Forgetting we are “inseparably interconnected with nature,” Fr. John said, leads to a distorted sense of human exceptionalism that is, at best, a “half-truth.”
“In theological terms, that’s called heresy,” Fr. John stressed, pointing to the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic as recent reminders that humanity thrives through interdependence and withers in isolation.
“One thing we have inherited from our tradition and theology is the notion that—beyond any accomplishments and achievements—life always conceals an element of surprise, of unpredictability—in the church, we call that grace,” Fr. John responded when asked Orthodox Christians should remember as they enter the age of artificial intelligence. “The saints remind us that we learn through imperfection and humility, we grow through failure and limitations. And that’s something not readily discovered by staring at a screen.”
Corinna Robinson, MTS is the Content & Communications Associate at the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Hellenic College Holy Cross, where she supports social media, content development, and event communications in service of the Institute’s mission of ecumenical dialogue, education, and engagement.