The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.

Music

Conductor: Mack Wilberg and Ryan Murphy
Organist: Andrew Unsworth
Announcer: Lloyd D. Newell

“Simple Gifts”
Music: Shaker song
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy

“Morning Has Broken”¹
Music: Gaelic melody
Lyrics: Eleanor Farjeon
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Final,” from Symphony No. 1 (organ solo)
Music: Louis Vierne

“Look Up,” from Lifesongs
Music: Ryan Murphy
Lyrics: Howard Walter

“O Splendor of God’s Glory Bright”
Music: German hymn tune
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“The Sound of Music,” from The Sound of Music
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Arrangement: Arthur Harris

“The Morning Breaks”²
Music: George Careless
Lyrics: Parley P. Pratt
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

1. ¹ From the albums Consider the Lilies and America the Beautiful.
2. ² From the album Praise to the Man.

The Spoken Word

The Glory of God Is Intelligence

July 9, 2023
Lloyd D. Newell

Computer science has given us some amazing technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, or AI. Among the most recent are chatbots. You can ask a chatbot a question, and it will respond with relevant, natural-sounding answers.¹What’s more, you can ask a chatbot to write, draw, and even sing. In less than two seconds, the chatbot can create poems, images, and songs that are often surprisingly similar to what human authors and artists would produce.

However, it’s also worth noting what chatbots cannot do. They cannot always discern truth from error. Their information is almost limitless, but their intelligence is, at best, artificial. They repeat what they’ve read on the internet, but they can’t tell you if what they found there is true, virtuous, or inspiring. And maybe most important, they can’t mimic the satisfaction and personal growth that come from effort over time to create something.

Computer science professor Tony Martinez explained the problem this way: “People don’t like to do hard things when they don’t have to. As much as we know that work is good for us, we would rather eat a cookie and watch a show than do something really hard. When we have the option to let AI do the hard thing better than we’ve ever done, we miss out on the growth.”²

When a machine behaves like a human, we naturally wonder what makes us different from the machine. What does it mean to be human? This can lead our thoughts and hearts toward everlasting things. We long for not just what is efficient or effective but what is good and righteous. We seek the Way, the Truth, and the Life (see John 14:6). In our search, we discover that “the glory of God is intelligence”—not the artificial kind but the intelligence that God has placed inside each of His children, the “light and truth” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36).

Professor Martinez says his religious beliefs, his spiritual outlook, provide perspective as he faces rapidly changing technology. He’s learned to look to God for trustworthy guidance and direction. Unlike a chatbot or any other artificial intelligence, God’s light and truth are a real and firm foundation for everlasting growth.

1. See Bernard Marr, “ChatGPT: Everything You Really Need to Know (in Simple Terms),” Forbes, Dec. 21, 2022, forbes.com.
2. In Sara Smith Atwood and ChatGPT, “I, Chatbot,” Y Magazine (Spring 2023), magazine.byu.edu.