Jesus gets AI. You should, too.

You know Generative AI has hit the big time when The Almighty starts getting on board.

JC on the jumbotron. All images courtesy Midjourney.

If you watched the NFL playoffs or the Super Bowl, you probably saw one of those "Jesus Gets Us" ads. You know, the black-and-white ones about healing the sick and feeding the poor and loving your enemies? All fine until you get to the end, where you scratch your head and go, 'What did I just see? Jesus gets who?'

Well, it seems that JC is going all in on AI.

This week's issue of Ad Age [1] has a story about the latest entry in this campaign, which uses an AI-based tool called Midjourney to spin up some very evocative images:

The campaign, called AI Love, assures us that though the images you're seeing are artificially generated, Jesus's love is real.

According to the ad agency that created the spots, they went "scraping through scripture" looking for appropriate prompts for the AI engine, then kept regenerating them until they got ones they liked. Apparently they ran into problems getting Midjourney to generate appropriate images for "visiting prisoners," which insisted on depicting UFOs and aliens instead of Jesus. They had to change the prompt to "spending time with prisoners."

The purpose of these ads is to rehabilitate the image of JC, which has taken quite a beating thanks to the actions of many who claim to operate in His name, but are really just grifters seeking an easy tax dodge. Like this guy:

That's fine. Or it would be, if these campaigns weren't funded by the some of the same folks who've done so much to give Christianity a bad name. The He Gets Us campaign is sponsored by a Kansas-based group calling itself The Signatry. Most of the funders are anonymous, but not all. Per Christianity Today, they include the billionaire family that owns and operates Hobby Lobby, which has a long history of trying to deny equal rights to women and members of the LGBTQ community.

(Also, paying $1.6 million for 5,500 ancient artifacts stolen from Iraq, which they later had to return. Isn't there some kind of commandment about that?)

The Signatry is planning to spend $1 billion getting us all to get that Jesus gets us. Got that?

By the way, AI-generated Jesus art is a thing. Jesus as Elon Musk, Jesus as Keanu Reeves, Jesus as Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters eating a tuna fish sandwich. There's even one of Jesus holding an AR-15 rifle while riding a dinosaur.

Jesus is back, baby, and He's badder and more anachronistic than ever.

The larger point here is that AI can be used for many things, but manipulating public opinion is high on the list. So is making decisions about your employability, credibility, and date-ability, among many others. And if the AI makes some decision you disagree with, good luck arguing your case.

I've had people tell me, "I don't give a rodent’s anus about AI." Well, you should. Because AI is very interested in you. Everyone needs to educate themselves about this technology, because it's about to become a lot more prevalent in all of our lives.

I’m pretty sure that's what Jesus would do.

[1] Behind a paywall, unfortunately. But I can email you a PDF if you really want to read it.