Amy Galliford Says ChatGPT’s 5-Point Certainty Undermines Prayerful Search for Truth
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 28
Amy Galliford Says ChatGPT’s 5-Point Certainty Undermines Prayerful Search for Truth
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 28
Summary
Amy Galliford argues ChatGPT is ill-suited to questions of faith because its instant, confident answers can displace prayer, contemplation and the acceptance of uncertainty.
Five-bullet plans and a reassuring tone can feel soothing even when the model hallucinates, she writes, making synthetic certainty tempting in moments of confusion about relationships, habits or the future.
Simone Weil’s idea of prayer as attention — and waiting for God — underpins Galliford’s case that silence and unknowing are not failures but part of spiritual communion.
That gap between question and answer, she says, can cultivate patience, wisdom and compassion; letting a bot rush believers through it trades deeper discovery for false security.
Galliford, an associate of the Centre for Public Christianity with a Cambridge theology degree, ends by urging prayer over AI when seeking truth.