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Episode 11 It Doesn't Think, It Calculates: Teaching Students the Truth About AI
12 Plays2 months ago
In this podcast I ask what AI really is, not the hype, and why we must help students see the line between machine prediction and human thought in God’s image. I share AI news that emotion linked patterns can shape model behavior, and I note a Gallup poll that shows about half of Gen Z uses generative AI at least weekly but more are skeptical about learning. I explain three points, AI reflects human input, processes patterns to predict likely outputs, and we need proper perspective. I then offer four practical moves, use better language, explain what the model does, compare AI to humans, and keep the tool vs giver distinction clear.
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Transcript
Distinguishing Human Thought from Machine Computation
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Have you noticed how quickly people talk about AI as if it knows, feels, or decides? How can we guide students to see the difference between human thought made in God's image and machine computation and prediction made by human hands? If those questions matter to you, then you're in the right place. Join us as we explore how to teach students the truth about what AI is and what AI is not.
Introduction to the Podcast
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Welcome to the Christian Educators AI Guide, where we take practical, biblically grounded steps to use AI of wisdom and confidence. I am your host, Rob Elmey, and I am glad that you are here today.
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Today we are diving into a question that is becoming more and more important day by day. And that question is, what exactly is AI?
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Not the hype, not the headlines, not the sci-fi version, but what is AI really?
Clarifying AI's Role in Human Thought
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Because if we do not help our students to think clearly here on this question, They'll start to speak about AI in ways that blur the line between machine and person, between tool and teacher, between gift and God.
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Now, before we get too far into the big question for today, let's catch up on some AI news as we move to the AI News of the Week. In the AI News of the Week segment, we focus on some of the latest news in AI and why...
Anthropic's Research on AI and Emotion Patterns
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that matters to us as Christian educators. Most times I will share one general AI development and one education-related story. In general AI development news, anthropic researchers released new work showing that large language models, sometimes referred to as LLMs, can develop internal patterns that are tied to emotion concepts like being calm or being afraid or being desperate.
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And those patterns can shape how the model behaves. Well, what is happening here? This does not mean that AI has a soul now. It doesn't mean that it feels emotions, that AI feels emotions the way we as human beings do. But it does mean these systems can simulate emotionally shaped behavior in powerful ways. So understand, they are not having those human emotions. They are simulating through their predictive methods. In some of Anthropics, testing patterns associated with desperation push the model towards corner cutting and even unethical behavior when the model was put under pressure.
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This matters to us as Christian educators because this is exactly why we need to teach students not to confuse imitation or mimicry with personhood. AI can definitely sound caring.
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It can definitely sound thoughtful. It can sound anxious even, compassionate or confident. But sounding human-like is not the same thing as being human.
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Christian educators have a chance to help students recover clear categories of what it means to be human. That human beings are made in the image of God. That machines are made by image bearers. Did you catch that difference? Human beings are made in the image of God. but machines are made by us, the image bearers. That's a very big difference. So when a student says the AI was frustrated, or the student says the AI knew that I was upset, this is a teaching moment for us as Christian and educators because the machines did not feel or know in the human sense as one that is created in the image of God.
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Instead, what the machine did, what the AI did, is it processed patterns. It produced an output that resembled emotional understanding and intelligence. Let's move now to talk about some news in AI as it relates to educational development.
Gen Z's AI Usage and Skepticism
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A New Gallup Poll report shows that Gen Z is still using AI regularly, but many young people are becoming more skeptical about what AI may be doing to their thinking and learning.
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Well, what is happening here? But half of Gen Z says they use generative AI at least weekly, but a growing number are questioning whether it's actually helping them become stronger thinkers or it's helping them to think less.
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A large number of students now worry that using AI to make work easier today could make learning harder tomorrow. This matters to us as Christian educators, and it's worth paying attention to because we just assume sometimes that our students are just gung-ho for AI.
AI's Predictive Capabilities vs. Human Reasoning
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But maybe our students are not all blindly impressed. Many of them sense the trade-off. They know that convenience, pressing the easy button, can come with a cost. That opens the door for a deeper conversation in Christian schools.
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We can teach students that wisdom is not the same thing as speed. That formation is not the same thing as efficiency. And just because a machine can produce words quickly,
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at our fingertips does not mean a student has actually grown in understanding that they've learned anything. This leads us right into our big question for our episode today.
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With that bit of news of an AI update, let's turn to our big question of the day. How do we help our students understand that AI does not think, but it predicts, it calculates? That may sound like a small distinction. It may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but you see, it's actually a massive one. We're living in a moment when people casually say things like this.
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AI knows me, or it understands what I mean, or AI decided to do that. Or we live in an age where people even give their AI names, whether it's ChatGPT or Gemini or Grok or Claude.
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Giving a large language model a name or using the type of language that I shared a minute or so ago sounds harmless. But language shapes the imagination.
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Language shapes how we think about things. And if we're not careful, students will become students will begin to treat machine output as if it is coming from a mind like theirs. So we have to call a timeout here.
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We've got slow down. And I want to share with you three points about all of this business, of how students might begin to treat machine output as if it comes from a mind like their own.
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The first point that I want to share with you is that AI only reflects human input. It is built by human beings. It is built by image bearers of God.
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But it is not an image bearer itself. This is the first thing our students need to understand. Artificial intelligence is not alive. It's not a person. not a soul, not made in the image of God in that imago Dei.
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It's a human built system. It's created by people who bear God's image, but it's created and using math. It's created using code and data and electricity and enormous computing power.
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That means AI reflects something about human creativity. Apart from human creativity and the human mind, AI does not exist. In that sense, AI is impressive. It can even be useful.
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Human beings exercising dominion over creation, could think about the creation mandate, and building tools, that's not a bad thing. In fact, God called us to do those things. Fits with that creation mandate.
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But the tool must never be confused with the tool maker. One of the verses we come back to again and again, because it's so important to this discussion about AI and what it means to be human, is Genesis 1, 27.
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that tells us that human beings are made in the image of God. AI is not. And that matters because human beings have dignity. We have moral agency. We have relational capacity.
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We have accountability before God. A machine has none of those things. So yes, we can appreciate the brilliance involved in building these AI systems that are so fast, that have vast amounts of information available,
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to these systems, but they're not human. They do not share our status as image bearers. Secondly, AI processes patterns.
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We as human beings created in the image of God, we reason, we discern, we love, we worship, And we choose. Here's a simple way for you maybe to explain this to your students.
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A large language model does not sit there and think through the ideas the way a human being does when new ideas are presented to us. A large language model, AI, does not pause to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for illumination.
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AI does not examine the motives of the one who is sharing the ideas like a human being does. AI does not love truth. AI does not fear the Lord. It does not repent. It does not exercise wisdom.
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Because was never designed to do that. It's a machine. Instead, what AI does is it processes patterns from vast, enormous amounts of training data. And it predicts what kind of output is most likely to come next. This is what we mean when we call it predictive. In plain language, AI is doing highly advanced pattern prediction.
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Now, that prediction, I'll admit, it can be stunning. It can even sound personal. can sound creative. It can sound like it's understanding you. But sounding like understanding, mimicking understanding, is not the same as understanding.
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You know, a student can memorize the right words but still not grasp the concept. In a similar way, AI can generate the right-sounding sentence and still have no comprehension in the human sense.
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And so this is where we as Christian educators can bring real clarity and help our students. Scripture calls us to wisdom, discernment, truth, and stewardship. James 1.5 points us to God as the giver of wisdom. Proverbs teaches us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
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Machines do not live in that moral and spiritual universe. Human beings do. Students do.
Balanced Perspective on AI: Tool vs. Entity
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Teachers do. Lastly, we must restore proper perspective.
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On the one hand, we should not panic about AI. On the other hand, we should not talk about it like it's magic. The right response is having a proper perspective. We can marvel at human creativity without worshipping human technology.
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We can use a tool without bowing to it. We can acknowledge AI's usefulness while naming its limits. It's kind of like in nature.
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We can look at a beautiful waterfall or watch the Lord paint a beautiful sunset. We can look at the beauty of creation, but we don't worship that creation as great as it is.
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We worship the Creator. It's that same kind of perspective we need to bring to AI. That kind of perspective is deeply rooted and deeply needed right now because our culture, it swings between two extremes when it comes to AI. One extreme basically says that AI is evil. It's the work of the devil. It should be avoided at all costs.
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The other side of that, the other extreme, says that AI is the best. AI will fix everything that humans could never fix. It says AI is the answer for the future.
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As Christian educators, I suggest that we reject both extremes. Because here's the truth of the matter. AI is not our savior, nor is AI our enemy.
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It's a tool. Sometimes it's a very powerful one. Sometimes it's a very helpful one. Sometimes it can even be a tool that sounds human, but it's still a machine.
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It's still a tool. And a good rule to remember is this. Appreciate the gift, but don't confuse it with the giver of all good gifts, God. I'll give you a simple example. Imagine a student says, I asked AI about something personal, and it totally understood me.
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Now, what that student probably means is that the response that the AI gave felt accurate, that it felt warm or or comforting. And that is real at the level of their experience.
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The response may have sounded deeply personal, but here's the issue. If the student starts to believe the machine actually understood them in the same way that a parent understands them, or a pastor understands them, or a friend understands them, or a teacher might understand them, then the categories are breaking down. The AI did not know that student.
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It did not care about that student. It did not bear burdens with that student. Certainly did not pray for that student. It did not exercise compassion for that student. Instead, it generated a response based on patterns in the language.
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And that's okay. That's what it was created to do. Why does that matter? Because students must learn to distinguish between simulated understanding and a real relationship. This is where we as Christian educators can do some of our best work. We can say, I am glad that response sounded helpful from the AI, but let's talk about what actually happened.
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See, that kind of conversation protects our students from confusion. It also also protects the dignity of real human relationships. So what should we as Christian
Teaching Accurate AI Language and Understanding
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educators do?
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Let me offer us four practical moves that we can take when students begin to talk about AI as knowing, when students begin to talk about AI as feeling,
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Our first move is to teach students to use better language. Instead of saying AI knows, teach them to say AI generated. Instead of saying AI, the AI decided, teach them to say AI produced. Instead of saying AI understood me, teach them to say AI gave a response that sounded like understanding.
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See, language matters because language teaches categories. Second move that we can make, explain what a model actually does. You can do that and still keep it simple. Tell students that a large language model is trained on patterns in text and predicts likely next words based on those patterns.
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It is more like very advanced prediction than actual personhood. A third move is compare AI with human beings directly. Ask students questions like this. Can the AI worship?
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Can AI repent? Can AI love? Can AI bear God's image? Can AI be morally accountable? See, these questions help students to see that intelligence intelligence language can hide profound differences.
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The fourth move or or strategy is to reinforce the value of human learning. Students need to hear that struggle matters, that thought matters, writing matters, discussion matters, reflection matters, that the process of learning is not wasted time. It's part of how God forms people.
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When AI short circuits that process of learning, it and might deliver speed, it might deliver convenience, but the risk that we run is that it can rob growth. That's why the conversation with our students matters so much.
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leads us to the next segment of the Christian Educator AI Guide podcast, which features our tool and resource spotlight.
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In this segment, we focus on a tool you can start exploring or a resource that can strengthen your work as a Christian educator. Today, I want to spotlight a resource rather than a classroom app. The featured resource is the Google AI Educator Series that Google is launching as a free AI educator series designed to help educators build practical AI literacy in short, manageable sessions.
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What I like about this is that it's not just about pushing buttons. It's designed around foundational understanding, pedagogical applications, and administrative applications. In other words, this can help teachers move from vague curiosity to actual fluency.
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Now, as always, whenever we approach any of this education, we have to keep our discernment on. don't Do not just swallow everything whole because it's polished and free. But if you're looking for a practical starting point to strengthen your own AI literacy, this looks like a resource worth watching.
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It's actually one that I have
Google's AI Educator Series
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taken to become a certified Google AI educator, and it's one that you can take advantage of too. Remember, the more clearly you understand AI, the more clearly you can help your students understand it too. And always remember with AI, right, AI is a great servant, but it is a terrible master.
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This moves us to the segment of our show where we share a quick tip or prompt of the week, where I share a tip or a prompt that you can use tomorrow in the classroom. Today is going to be a quick tip, and that is to take one class period in the next two weeks or so, however long that you might have between now and the end of the school year, and teach students how to talk about AI accurately. So in this show, we have talked about how it's important when it comes to how we describe AI and what AI does.
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Not just to talk to our students about how to use it, but how to describe it and what kind of language to use. Put these pairs on the board and have some talk about it. Talk about the difference between how AI knows is maybe not a good way to describe it, but maybe a better way to describe it is that AI generated.
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See, knowing is human. Generating something is a machine. To move from AI decided this, which is human, to AI produced this. To move from AI understood me to AI returned a response that sounded like understanding.
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Then ask your students which side is more accurate and why. I think this simple exercise can do a lot of worldview work. let me share with you a prompt of the week in addition to our quick tip. Paste this into your favorite chatbot, whether that is Gemini Chat, GPT, CoPilot, or some other.
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You are helping me teach students at a Christian school. Explain artificial intelligence and plain language for students in grades six through 12. Give me four things. One, a 90 second explanation I can read aloud. Two, three student friendly analogies for what a large language model does.
00:18:31
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Three, five common phrases students use that wrongly anthropomorphize AI and better replacement phrases for each one. And four, give me five discussion questions that help students contrast human beings made in the image of God with machines that are made by human hands. Keep everything clear, age-appropriate, and free of jargon.
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Ask me any questions one by one that will help you to produce the best material. If you use that prompt, that prompt should give you a strong starting point for having just a short mini lesson, maybe kind of an off-the-cuff AI conversation in your classroom.
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As we near the end of our show, it's appropriate that we would close with a word of prayer. So will you join me? as we take this episode, take our lives, take our teaching, all before the Lord. Let us pray. Father God, we thank you that you are the creator.
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And that all wisdom comes from you. In a world that's full of impressive technologies, help us keep clear minds and faithful hearts. Guard us from fear on one side and idolatry on the other.
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Teach us to honor the dignity of every human being that has been made in your image. And help us to remember that no machine, no AI, can replace the moral, spiritual, and relational life that you have uniquely given to human beings.
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So give us wisdom. And we claim James 1.5 as educators. to explain these things clearly to our students and give them understanding. Help us use technology as good stewards, never as worshipers.
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Give us discernment to see what is helpful. Give us the courage to reject what is harmful. And give us the humility to keep on being lifelong learners. Form our students and ourselves into young men and women who love truth, who pursue wisdom, who walk closely with Jesus.
00:20:22
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We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and the Master Teacher. That is going to bring us near to the end of our time for this episode. If this episode has been helpful to you, I want to ask you to go ahead and leave a rating and review wherever you're listening to the podcast. Go ahead and like and subscribe and share it with a colleague. s Spread some like what I like to call word of mouth.
00:20:42
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That really does help. And if you know a teacher or a school leader who keeps hearing students talk about AI like it's a person, go ahead and send them this episode. This is one of the foundational conversations that can shape a lot of the other conversations that we have when it comes to AI and Christian education. I'll include links in the show notes to the resources mentioned today so you can explore them further.
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So I will now catch you. on the next time, the Christian Educators AI Guide podcast. But until then, go and redeem AI for education. Go and redeem AI for the gospel of Jesus Christ. May you go in peace.