What does a recent controversy about a YouTuber and AI teach us about morality?
So here’s the story, according to reports: YouTuber Hank Green, who has 3.2 million subscribers across his channels, recently had to apologize after fans noticed an AI prompt response in one of his videos, showing that he’d been using AI to create the video. After the backlash, he shared that he’s pausing producing videos on some of his channels, saying: “I have been relying too heavily on AI as a research aid. . . . It can be very useful for this task, giving me access to a lot of papers I didn’t know existed really fast, but I think that has been to the detriment of my work because it has not given me the freedom to find all of my own ways into and around a topic.”
With how new AI is, the debate rages about ethical and unethical uses for AI. Now, most people would agree there’s nothing wrong with using AI as a productivity tool or for research assistance, maybe even for generating an outline or script that a human fact-checks and adds on to. Many of us will use AI for such purposes. But when people pass off AI generated content as if it were their own, many people get upset. And why? Well, because it’s a form of plagiarism and seems dishonest. But where does the idea of honesty come from?
You see, people want content creators to be honest, but the concept of honesty comes from a Biblical worldview, which most people in our culture today reject. In a secular worldview, there is no moral imperative to be honest—as long as you are getting what you want, why be honest? The end justifies the means! If there is no ultimate authority, there is no ultimate morality, and therefore nothing is truly right or truly wrong. Sure, we may prefer honesty, but that’s all it is—a personal preference—and others might not have the same preference (and without a moral authority, we can’t judge preferences!).
Whenever these kinds of moral controversies erupt, it’s a good reminder that morality only makes sense in a biblical worldview founded on God’s Word. It’s only because we have an ultimate authority—the unchanging Word of God—that we can say whether things are right or wrong. And the biblical worldview also explains why we intrinsically know things like honesty are moral—we have God’s law written on our hearts (our consciences). Apart from a God-given conscience (which is immaterial), there is no consistent reason humans should just know certain things are right or wrong. Our conscience is another reminder that God’s Word is true.
And yet so many reject the moral absolutes of Scripture and the truth of the gospel in favor of relativistic, whatever “feels right” morality. This kind of thinking is rampant in our culture and absolutely permeates higher education.
