{"id":70231,"date":"2025-05-03T01:40:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T05:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=70231"},"modified":"2025-04-25T08:59:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T12:59:55","slug":"the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with AI&#8212; The Temptation is too Great"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/06\/Ben-Index.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-57905\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/06\/Ben-Index.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Witherington\" width=\"273\" height=\"286\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification top right that I could avail myself of an \u2018AI Assistant\u2019\u00a0 but on the top left there was the comment\u2014 this is a long document, you can read the summary instead, click here.\u00a0 \u00a0Sorry Mr. AI, but I have to attend to every syllable and comma of my doctoral student\u2019s work, not skipping anything or trusting some AI or Chat Bot\u2019s judgments.\u00a0 \u00a0And even worse is the fact that now students can have their papers largely if not entirely written for them by artificial intelligence with the professor none the wiser, unless he or she has previously read other non-AI assisted work by that student to compare it to.\u00a0 \u00a0I would imagine that the temptation to use AI even if only for help with English, is especially great for students for whom English is their second language.\u00a0 \u00a0And since Asbury has an international PhD program with many foreign students,\u00a0 I have made it a rule for my students to NEVER use AI for research or composition purposes.\u00a0 They must do their own researching and writing.\u00a0 \u00a0Period.\u00a0 If they need help with composing in English, I or our writing center can help them with that.\u00a0 And imagine what will happen at the level of publication. Now all the major publishers have programs that will tell them when it is likely someone is plagiarizing something without attribution of sources.\u00a0 \u00a0I once had one of my publishers come back to me with a question\u2013 where did you get the phrase \u2018a text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean\u2019.\u00a0 They added they had found that phrase on the lips of several preachers in published sermons.\u00a0 \u00a0I responded, \u2018they got it from me of course\u2019 since I have used the phrase in numerous of my publications to make a point.\u00a0 Most recently I was on Youtube, and suddenly Russell Brand, of all people quoted me as saying this, with attribution to me.\u00a0 Well, good for him, as he was right about that.<\/p>\n<p>If it is true that all human beings, even those with some rather high moral standards are subject to temptation, and if it is true that the internet has already provided the impetus to take shortcuts in doing serious research, it is reasonable to conclude that\u00a0 expecting a principled use of AI by doctoral students without wavering on the principles, is a temptation too great to be overcome.\u00a0 \u00a0Hence, my insistence that my doctoral students do and write their own work, whether it is stellar or lackluster.<\/p>\n<p>Enough said on this troubling subject.\u00a0 Whatever the positive possibilities for AI, making sinful people more honest about their use of sources and of composing documents is not one of them.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification top right that I could avail myself of an \u2018AI Assistant\u2019\u00a0 but on the top left there was the comment\u2014 this is a long document, you can read the summary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":57896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15466],"class_list":["post-70231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ai-should-stand-for-avoid-it"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-03T05:40:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-25T12:59:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/06\/BiblicalTheologyBookCov.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"499\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/\",\"name\":\"The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-03T05:40:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-25T12:59:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Problem with AI&#8212; The Temptation is too Great\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great","description":"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great","og_description":"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2025-05-03T05:40:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-25T12:59:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":350,"height":499,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/06\/BiblicalTheologyBookCov.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/","name":"The Problem with AI--- The Temptation is too Great","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-03T05:40:37+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-25T12:59:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"I was grading doctoral seminar papers which I had asked to be in Adobe Acrobat format, and suddenly noticed something new.\u00a0 \u00a0Not merely the notification","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/05\/03\/the-problem-with-ai-the-temptation-is-too-great\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Problem with AI&#8212; The Temptation is too Great"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}