Welcome to this MyCom screencast on how to use artificial intelligence for your church.
We've all heard about the explosion of artificial intelligence happening all over the internet. The main focus is on a large language model called ChatGPT.
We're going to talk a little bit about how to use it, how to use it well and how to avoid the pitfalls that exist within it.
In order to know how to use it, we need to know what it is. Before we do that, let's log in.
Simply go to chat.openai.com. Click “Login.” You can use all sorts of things to authenticate your login, including just using your Google account. You might have to verify that you're human.
Basically, ChatGPT uses massive amounts of computing power to generate human-sounding responses to text prompts. One technologist described it as autocorrect on steroids.
It basically pieces together words that are likely to be the next appropriate word based on the prompt that you give it.
We can actually let ChatGPT tell you.
“ChatGPT is a large language model developed by open AI that is capable of generating human like text. It is based on a GPT 3.5 architecture, which uses deep learning techniques to learn from a vast amount of …”
ChatGPT is aware of all kinds of things, including styles and comprehension levels. So, you can ask it a slightly different question.
“How can you say this in a way my third-grader can understand it?”
“ChatGPT is a computer program that can talk to people like you do. It has learned a lot of things by reading many books and websites. And it can use that knowledge to answer your questions and have conversations with you. Think of it like a really smart robot friend that you can talk to using words. It can help you with homework, answer your questions, or just chat with you like a friend.”
As creepy as that might sound, that's really what it is.
When you use ChatGPT, it is really important to give it clear, direct prompts.
It can be a lot of fun, because it understands things such as style, tone and slang.
Let's generate some content for a lesson that involves a process piece about how to create a ham sandwich.
We'll ask it, “Can you give instructions on how to make a ham sandwich … in the style of a King James Bible verse?”
“Verily, hearken into these instructions on how thou mayest prepare a ham sandwich fit for a king’s table. Take unto the hand a slice of bread, soft and fresh, and lay upon a platter. Then, take of the ham, cut in thin slices, and place it upon the bread in a pleasing arrangement. And lo, take also a slice of cheese. …”
One thing to remember, is ChatGPT is good at making well-crafted sentences, but it's not always great on getting facts correct. So, it's probably not time to let ChatGPT generate your next lesson, but it can help with creating ad copy.
Like this content and the tools we provide?
Let's ask it to help us create a Facebook ad for a choir concert at First United Methodist Church featuring Handel's Messiah in a performance by violinist Geneva Brahm.
There's lots of details in there. And that's important. Now you see that it is creating a Facebook ad.
“Come experience the magic of Handel's Messiah performed by our talented choir. The captivating performance of renowned violinist Geneva Brahm is brilliant.”
It's got a picture that you could use. It's got hashtags, and it's got a title, but it’s a pretty long title for Facebook.
So, what we're going to do is ask, “Can you create a headline for this that is less than 60 characters long?”
And it will: “Experience Handel's Messiah and violinist Geneva Brahm on Dec. 12.”
But that's a little basic. So, let's see if they can punch it up a little.
“Celebrate the holiday with Handel's Messiah and violinist Geneva Brahm.”
Brilliant.
You've got all that you need, except, of course, an image.
There are artificial intelligence apps that will generate images.
You've probably heard of Midjourney. The one done by this company, OpenAI, is called Dall-E 2.
Let's hop on over to Dall-E 2 and click on “Try.”
We want this to create a Facebook ad for us. So, we're just going to put in exactly what we want. Our prompt here is going to show us a little bit about the uniqueness of Dall-E and other artificial intelligence image-generation tools.
So, we asked for it to give us a Facebook ad featuring a choir and a violinist and winter setting singing Handel's Messiah. We click “Generate” and let it go.
We can continue to tweak our requests until we get something we like.
The more detail you can put into your description in Dall-E, the more accurate you're going to get.
Jeremy Steele is a writer, conspirator and spiritual entrepreneur who refuses to give up on Christianity. He spends his time resourcing the dreams of the next generation and helping it discover paths to spiritual enlightenment and connection with God. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, and is associate pastor at Chesterbrook UMC. Find more about him and his work at Jeremy-Steele.com.