Provo • Latter-day Saint apostle Gerrit W. Gong delivered a heavenly warning Tuesday about a rapidly expanding earthly tool.
“Artificial intelligence is not God and cannot be God,” Gong declared on day two of Brigham Young University’s Education Week. It “cannot replace revelation or generate truth from God.”
The religious leader, speaking to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and nearly 16,000 participants in BYU’s Marriott Center, conceded A.I. can be a useful resource. He added that the church is “exploring practical uses” for it.
“For example,” Gong said, “A.I.-related technologies can facilitate church language translation, production and publication.”
In a global faith of 17.5 million members, with a presence in more than 150 countries, such high-tech assistance can be a godsend.
But A.I., the faith’s first and only Asian American apostle said, cannot serve as a substitute for divine inspiration.
“As church members, we will not grow spiritually if we let artificial intelligence write our sacrament [meeting] talks or do our seminary homework,” Gong said. “A.I. cannot replace our individual effort and spiritual preparation as we prepare lessons, prayers or blessings.”
Gong, reiterating his comments from a recent international religious conference in Istanbul, reminded the audience that A.I. is human-made and could never replicate true morality.
“A.I. cannot provide inspired divine truth or independent moral guidance,” he said. “As a creation of God, man can create A.I., but A.I. cannot create God.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks at BYU Education Week on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
Gong also demonstrated A.I.’s limits. When ChatGPT was released in November 2022, he said, he and his loved ones asked it to write a journal entry that would summarize a recent family reunion. The chatbot complied but ended up fabricating a story of the family arriving at an expensive lodge with a private chef feeding the clan.
“Gong reunions don’t have fancy lodges or chefs,” he said. “We have a lot of fun and great memories, not in the way ChatGPT fantasized.”
BYU Education Week continues through Friday, with hundreds of classes — secular and religious — taught by hundreds of volunteers.