Allan Ahlberg, Methodism and Artificial Intelligence By Andy Stoker

Although I am a professional engineer, I am a late adopter of most technical innovations. However, I have recently been looking more into Artificial Intelligence (AI) – and what I have found has both excited me and given me cause for concern.

AI is technology that enables machines to mimic human intelligence, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving to perform tasks autonomously. Generative AI is artificial intelligence that creates new content—text, images, audio, or video—by learning from patterns in data.

AI offers many benefits, including faster decision-making, automation of repetitive tasks, improved accuracy, cost savings, enhanced customer experiences, personalized recommendations, predictive analytics, better healthcare outcomes, increased efficiency, and innovation. It helps businesses grow, supports scientific research, enables smarter technologies, and improves everyday life by simplifying complex problems and processes.

Generative AI has several potential problems, including:
· Misinformation & deepfakes: Creating false or misleading content.
· Bias & unfairness: Reproducing or amplifying biases in training data.
· Copyright issues: Using protected material without consent.
· Security risks: Enabling scams or cyberattacks.
· Job disruption: Automating creative or routine roles.
· Ethical concerns: Blurring boundaries between real and artificial.

It’s clever and quick. Chat GPT wrote all of paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 above in seconds. I have not edited them at all. From what I have read, the summaries are reasonable but I would add two further features:
· It can appear creative – see the poem below. I asked it to write a short sermon on “The Good Samaritan” – it instantly churned out something that I could have used for service planning,
· It comes with significant environmental issues, from mining and extraction to transportation, energy and water consumption, and e-waste generation.

I'm looking into AI partly because we know that (MSc) students on the University course on which I work are assisted by AI in writing their dissertations. They are allowed to use AI for assistance but the final text must be their own. Some of it is error-strewn and relatively easy to spot, there are some stylistic oddities (e.g. the long “em-dashes” in the second paragraph and in the poem below are an AI favourite) – but other examples are not easy for us to detect.

AI gets things wrong: I asked it about Dialstone Lane Methodist Church and it told me it had closed in 2019 and advised me to try another Methodist church – and described either Mount Tabor or the original Trinity Methodist Church on the A6 – it wasn’t clear which.

I experimented a little. I asked ChatGPT to write me a poem about Methodism in the style of the recently departed Allan Ahlberg. It churned out this in seconds – it seems not to scan very well in a couple of places – but some of it is reasonably clever stuff I think – and not unfair:

The Methodist Way (in the style of Allan Ahlberg)

At Number Four on Chapel Lane, they preach the Word — not just explain.
A Bible worn, a candle lit, a preacher's heart, a Holy writ.

They sing of grace that comes before – “Prevenient!” (though some want more).
A grace that seeks you where you stray, and whispers, “Child, come walk My way.”

Now every week, without much fuss, they talk of Christ who walks with us.
Of faith made real by love and deed – not just in words, but meeting need.

The Methodists — they love a plan, (ask Wesley, he’s their founder man).
He rode on horseback, rain or sun, and said: “The world’s my parish, son!”

They speak of works — not earning grace, but showing Christ in every place.
A loaf of bread, a protest sign, a visit made, a thoughtful line.

They talk of holiness — that’s right! Of being changed by Spirit’s light.
Not perfect now, but pressing on, like Paul, like Wesley, like St. John.

They gather round the Table too, with wine and bread and something true.
No magic trick, no priest in gold – but signs of love, forever old.

And when they pray, it’s not for show, but just to walk where Christ would go.
With sinners, doubters, saints, and strays – all held in grace through all their days.

So come along and sit a while, they’ll greet you with a humble smile.
For faith, for hope, for love they stay – that’s just the Methodist way.

I’ll spare you its bleak creation in the style of Larkin – and the rather humdrum limerick it gave me. I finally asked for 8 lines on Methodism in the style of Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate and got:

Hymns stitched tight as Sunday shoes,
voices rising like steam from terraced streets.
The preacher’s hands, cracked as winter stone,
draw circles in air, a promise of light.

Tea urn hisses in the church hall corner,
biscuits stacked like communion for the everyday.
Faith hammered out on tin roofs and brass bands,
a plainspoken gospel in workman’s clothes.

What does it mean for us? Well, I’m impressed by what it can do. Try it – just go to ChatGPT.com and try it for free. I believe this is safe -but steer clear if you are not happy.

However, I think there are some existential threats – not least in material it generates and gets wrong – and in generating material which a person can claim is their own.

Others will know far more than me – I’ll be interested to hear your response.

Andy Stoker (Dialstone Lane)