Will ChatGPT Testify Against You?

In this episode of Wake Up, Look Up, Pastor Zach explores how AI conversations are increasingly being used in criminal investigations and what that means for privacy in a digital world. He unpacks the spiritual reality that nothing is truly hidden, pointing listeners to Jesus’ words about what is done in secret eventually coming to light. Pastor Zach challenges us to live with integrity, remembering that God sees not only our public lives, but our private ones too.

Have an article you’d like Pastor Zach to discuss? Email us at [e-mail]!

Creators and Guests

Host

Zach Weihrauch

Follower of Jesus who has graciously given me a wife to love, children to shepherd, and a church to pastor.

What is Wake Up, Look Up?

Check out new episodes of our daily podcast, Wake Up, Look Up, with Zach Weihrauch as he interprets what's happening in our world through the lens of the gospel.

Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, will ChatGPT testify against you? This is prompted by an article I read recently on CNN's website looking at how increasingly prosecutors are using people's chatgpt conversations against them in criminal trials. Now, this was kind of brought to the forefront by a recent case in Florida where an alleged murder suspect who killed a young man and his and a young woman, he went about pursuing the crime on ChatGPT first asking questions like, how would I dispose of a body? what might eventually get me caught? Those kinds of things. Well, once the crime happened and eventually the police found their way to him, they were able to look up his ChatGPT history. And now, of course, it will be used against him in court. Increasingly, prosecutors are doing this. That's because legal experts are saying the law has not caught up to technology. AI chats have no legal confidentiality protections. So you may think of ChatGPT or use it as though it were a doctor or a lawyer or a counselor, but it does not provide the same protections that conversations with those human professionals do. And this is bringing about kind of a legal firestorm with, on one side, law enforcement officials saying, hey, it's fair game, and on the other side, people concerned about civil liberties saying, but it shouldn't be. Privacy should be protected by law. I bring this up for two reasons. one is just to make sure you're aware that the things you are talking to ChatGPT about could find their way eventually out into the broader universe. You may think you have protection that you don't. And if you have teenagers like me, they are probably using ChatGPT, and it would be worth a conversation with them where you remind them that things put on the Internet, even in the context of a private conversation with an AI, can find their way out into the broader world. And just to be careful about the things you talk about and the things you type, because they could find their way out there. But also, I bring this up because there's a spiritual principle that I think this captures really well, and that is in Luke 8:17, when Jesus says, for nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. You know, the truth is, a lot of us are probably saying things on a chatgpt that we wouldn't say, out in the larger world. And we've bifurcated that in our head. Right? We don't say it in the larger world because we understand the. That wouldn't be well received. We wouldn't be well thought of. but we are maybe more, willing to be real or authentic or transparent when we don't think the conversation will find its way out there. But what Jesus is saying is that part of being a Christian, part of understanding there is a God who is everywhere and knows everything, is living with an awareness that nothing is ever truly hidden. Every thought, every comment, every interaction is ultimately in the spotlight of God's attention. You know, the Bible calls this kind of mindset the fear of the Lord. And that word fear isn't a scary kind of fear. It's, a healthy kind of awareness or respect that God knows and God sees and living out a certain kind of life because of that, operating with the humility that says, I, I know God is watching. I know God is holy, I know he is just. And therefore I'm not going to do this. One of the ways I try to teach my younger children about lying, you know, I tell them, you can lie to me sometimes and get away with it. I won't know. But the problem with lying isn't that dad will catch you. It's that there's a God who sees. And when you lie, in some ways, you're being a functional atheist. You're saying, if no human knows, then I'm getting away with it. But of course you're not, because there is a God who watches and knows. More and more people are going to find out that the private conversations they thought they were having with their AI, counselor, doctor, therapist, lawyer, they weren't actually having. They were public, not private. But for us as Christians, maybe we should just stop and say, you know what? I'm not afraid of the courtroom, and I'm not even afraid of the Internet mob. What I am sensitive to is that a holy and just God knows what is in my heart and in my head. And of course, that makes us grateful for the gospel of Jesus, which covers our sin. Our desire should be increasingly to be the kind of people whose private conversations could easily be made public, because in our minds, at least to God, they already were. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content, or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at [e-mail]!