Hey Conscious Church Fam

The AI landscape is absolutely buzzing this week. From groundbreaking research tools to some properly mind-bending developments in deepfake tech, we've got loads to unpack. But here's what matters: understanding how to navigate these changes whilst keeping our humanity intact…

Let’s dive in…

In today's recap:

🧠 Deep Research: AI's new superpower
🎭 Deepfakes reach new heights
🤖 AI takes the wheel in coding
✝️ Morning devotions with CS Lewis

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💭 Josh’s Musings

My father-in-law (a pastor) has been sitting on years of notes.

Sermons. Reflections. Thoughts on Who is Jesus? What does this mean for my life?

All spread across different Word docs, gathering digital dust.

He’s always wanted to turn them into something. A simple guide for first-timers at his church. Something clear, engaging, and actually usable.

But… where do you even start?

As he’s visiting us this week, I showed him a little trick.

We uploaded everything into ChatGPT. Told it to organise the notes into chapters. Keep the language simple. Add reflection questions. Make it actually flow.

Boom.

Suddenly, years of scattered thoughts became a structured, readable draft.

His face lit up.

He’s a Pastor who has a lot on his plate and a big vision in his heart for the people.

This tool has just taken his work and helped to edit, cut, summarise and streamline into something manageable that he can move forward with.

That is a win in my book!

Most churches don’t have a team of editors. They don’t have someone sifting through decades of sermon notes, pulling out the gold, making it usable.

But AI? It’s like having an assistant you don’t have to pay. 😂 

It’s not replacing people. It’s just helping get the stuff done.

And this got me thinking about something else.

Yesterday, my father-in-law was at our church service. He doesn’t speak the language. So I was sitting next to him, scribbling notes, my wife whispering translations, doing our best.

And I thought—surely, there’s a better way?

What if you could set up a simple automation?

• Take the sermon audio.

• Transcribe it.

• Translate it.

• Add a voiceover in another language.

It would be fairly simple to set up in Make.com or N8N. And suddenly, the same message reaches way more people.

This is the kind of thing I love thinking about.

Not just "AI is cool!" but "How does this actually help real people in a real way?"

Imagine taking your podcast and redoing it in another language for people perhaps in your community that you want to reach…

And here’s the thing: AI is the worst it will ever be today.

It’s only getting better.

So whatever’s been sitting in your "I should get to this one day" pile—
Maybe it’s time to ask: Could AI help with this?

Not to replace. Not to take over.

Just to assist.

Because sometimes, all you need is a little structure, a little automation, a little push — To take what you’ve already built and make it even more effective.

LATEST NEWS

OPEN AI

🧠 OpenAI's Deep Research: A New Way of Learning

Recap: Right, this is fascinating - OpenAI has just unveiled an AI agent that can conduct complex research tasks in minutes. We're talking about analysing hundreds of sources, pulling together comprehensive summaries with proper citations, all in the time it takes to brew a cuppa.

Conscious Take: This is the stuff I LOVE when it comes to AI. I saw a few threads on X this week of people using Deep Research for rare diseases. The AI would research from data, reports, and sources and bring it together with suggestions. WOW! For you it may not be within ‘health’ but how could Deep Research revolutionise policy research, preparation for specific messages etc?

The flip side is… when information becomes instant, what happens to the wisdom that comes from deep, patient study?

Food for thought.

BYTEDANCE

🎭 ByteDance's OmniHuman-1: When Seeing Isn't Believing

Recap: ByteDance (TikTok's parent company) has created an AI that can generate hyper-realistic videos from a single photo and audio input. It can create videos of any length and style, even modifying movements in existing footage.

Conscious Thoughts: As these tools become more accessible, authenticity becomes more valuable. It's not just about what's technically possible - it's about maintaining trust in a world where seeing isn't necessarily believing anymore.

COPILOT

🤖 GitHub Copilot's "Agent Mode": AI Gets Hands-On with Code

Recap: GitHub's latest update is like having a tireless coding partner. Their new "Agent Mode" can write and fix code automatically, potentially revolutionising how we approach software development.

Conscious Thoughts: While this could speed up tech creation and lower the bar to entry for so many, it raises interesting questions about creativity and problem-solving. Are we improving our human capability, or slowly outsourcing our thinking?

BIBLE.AI

✝️ Morning devotional with CS Lewis?

You may have seen Church Dude With Sign on Instagram.

He stands around holding a cardboard sign with messages on them.

Well… behind the scenes he’s been creating an app – and it’s just launched.

bible.ai his words here: “Your personal Christian Ai. Designed to grow and learn with you as you explore scripture and engage in meaningful conversations about faith, life and everything in between.”

Imagine ChatGPT meets the Bible App.

It’s beautifully designed, and it’s fun to engage back and forth with your daily devotional in a conversational format, and one extra cool feature is the ability to converse with theologians like Spurgeon, Tozer and Lewis.

🔗 Trending Tools

Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

• 🔍 Perplexity: An AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers with citations. Perfect for quick, reliable information gathering.

• 🤖 Claude: Anthropic's AI assistant, known for strong conversational abilities and a focus on safety and ethics.

• 📝 Otter.ai: An AI-powered transcription and meeting note tool. Brilliant for capturing and summarising important conversations.

• 🎥 Loom AI: A video messaging tool that uses AI to help create, edit, and share videos.

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
2 Timothy 1:7

Three things to remember this week:

1. These tools are meant to enhance human capability, not replace human connection

2. The more artificial things become, the more valuable authentic creation will be

3. Innovation without wisdom is just novelty

Stay conscious,

Josh

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