Not for the first time, this week I clicked through a friend’s WhatsApp status to a song. Its beat was strongly resonant as were its words. I quickly found myself nodding along. I couldn’t however quite put my hand on what felt off. This led me to a web search which confirmed the artiste, Noah Nine, and its entire discography, was AI-generated.
To be fair, Spotify does label it as AI, I just had not clicked through to the song credits to find that. Given the number of plays (assuming these were not bot boosted numbers), and the internet chatter, others have found the music somewhere on the spectrum between intriguing at least or compelling. That the profile is credited with eight albums, all released in 2026, should also have been a flag.
As someone who still maintains a grip on faith, tenuous though it might be, I have memories of being in atmospheres where a great song, the right lights, and a moving call have engendered a deeply emotive response from me, and others. Even a dyed-in-the-wool, dour cynic like me has been known to end up with hands up in the air on occasion, with a tear or two coursing down my face. After those events, the conclusion was typically that God had “moved” in the room. Great technology, emotional nudging and a mass hysteria of sorts most certainly helped.
To the purist, the words of worship and its heart are distinct, a point made by John Piper in closing out his TGC 2025 sermon with a ChatGPT generated prayer. For him, true praise needs feeling as “the universe exists to have people in God’s image who feel the worth of grace.” The Pope doesn’t espouse a deeply different view it would seem, his oft-quoted maxim coming to mind: “to give a true homily is to share faith“.
What this does not negate though is that the practice of faith has influenced, and been influenced by, technology: the invention of writing, the printing press, television, and the internet all playing their part. Some, such as Muraresku might even argue that psychedelics and their mind altering influence might have been key to religion as we know it. Organised religion has always had its crutches, it would seem. Might (Gen)AI just be the next bit of tech to “encourage” the faithful?
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