Hey Conscious Church Fam

Thanks so much for all of you who reached out last week to pray and ask how we were (after car theft). Hopefully we should have a car sorted this week.

Not only that but thank you to those that sent a gift to get a coffee 🙂. This email wasn’t started as a vehicle to ‘get something’ out of it. That being said, I appreciate the kind gestures of some of you, and it ended up with me creating an official buymeacoffee page.

So this will likely live at the bottom of future emails. https://buymeacoffee.com/jbstannard

In today's recap:

• Disney locks in a $1B AI deal and opens its iconic characters to OpenAI

• Google announces AI glasses that bring Gemini into everyday vision

• Microsoft uses AI to turn cheap tissue samples into powerful cancer insights

Let’s dive in 👇

💭 Josh’s Musings

This week was much more ‘back to usual programming’.

That being said, i’ve misplaced my wallet over the weekend and I’m 99.8% certain its’s in the house but I can’t it.

The airtags, that I said I would buy earlier this year, are now on their way.

I was speaking with someone the other day andwe got talking about the Church and AI. and He asked, are there actually some really useful use cases for churches, other than it can help with content etc.

Whenever AI comes up in church spaces, the conversation usually goes one of two ways.

Either it’s framed as a threat — “Is this replacing people? Is this unspiritual?”
Or it’s reduced to productivity — “Can it help us write posts, emails, or save admin time?”

Both miss the point.

The real question isn’t “What can AI do for the church?”
It’s “What does it allow us to see that we’ve been missing?”

Most churches don’t have a technology problem.
They have a perception problem.

We make big spiritual and strategic decisions with surprisingly little feedback about:

• what’s shaping people Monday to Saturday

• where pressure is quietly building in families, schools, and neighbourhoods

• how our time, money, and attention are actually being spent

• whether our formation is sticking beyond Sunday

AI’s real potential isn’t automation.
It’s awareness.

For the first time, we have tools that can help leaders notice patterns at scale:

• slow cultural drift instead of reacting to crises

• weak signals before people disengage

• misalignment between what we say we value and what we actually reinforce

AI won’t save the church.
But it will expose where we’ve been operating on instinct, anecdotes, or inherited assumptions, and calling that discernment.

And maybe that’s the invitation of this moment:

Not to chase relevance.
Not to copy Silicon Valley.
But to become the kind of leaders who are deeply prayerful and deeply attentive, who refuse both fear and hype, and instead ask better questions.

The churches that thrive won’t be the ones that “use AI.”
They’ll be the ones who let it challenge how they see, decide, and steward people, without outsourcing wisdom or responsibility.

Faithfulness still requires humans.

🙌 Stay Curious, Stay Conscious, Stay Wild
Josh

LATEST NEWS

🎬 OPENAI & DISNEY LOCK IN A $1B AI PARTNERSHIP

Recap:

Disney has signed a major three-year licensing deal with OpenAI, giving Sora users access to over 200 characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars — alongside a reported $1B equity investment into OpenAI itself.

The Details:

• Creators will be able to generate videos using officially licensed characters like Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, and the Avengers

• Select AI-generated content is expected to appear on Disney+

• Disney is rolling out OpenAI’s APIs across its internal products and deploying ChatGPT company-wide

• The deal excludes real actor likenesses and voices, avoiding the most contentious Hollywood IP battles

• On the same day, Disney sent a cease-and-desist to Google, accusing it of generating unauthorised Disney content at scale

Conscious Take:

This is Disney picking a side.

For OpenAI, this deal is less about creativity and more about permission. Having legally licensed, globally recognised IP gives them a massive moat while rivals are still dodging lawsuits.

🕶️ GOOGLE ENTERS THE AI GLASSES RACE (2026)

Recap:
Google has announced plans to launch AI-powered smart glasses in 2026, partnering with Samsung, Warby Parker, and fashion brand Gentle Monster to challenge Meta’s early dominance.

The Details:

• Two versions are coming:

  • Audio-only frames for hands-free AI access

  • Display glasses with in-lens screens for navigation and live translation

• Processing will be handled by a connected smartphone to keep the frames lightweight

• Samsung is handling hardware, Warby Parker brings mass-market design, and Gentle Monster adds fashion credibility

• The glasses will be powered by Google’s Gemini AI and its wider app ecosystem

Conscious Take:
This isn’t about glasses. It’s about where AI lives.

Phones already shape attention. Glasses shape perception.

When AI moves from something you consult to something you see through, it quietly rewires how we experience reality, what gets highlighted, translated, suggested, or ignored.

🧬 MICROSOFT AI TURNS TISSUE SAMPLES INTO CANCER MAPS

Recap:
Microsoft has released and open-sourced GigaTIME, an AI model that can extract advanced cancer insights from a basic $10 tissue slide — work that previously cost thousands and took days.

The Details:

• Trained on 40 million cell samples from Providence Health

• Tested across 14,000 cancer patients

• Created a virtual library of 300,000 tumour images covering 24 cancer types

• Identified over 1,200 new patterns linking immune response to cancer progression and survival

• Dramatically reduces cost and time for population-scale cancer analysis

Conscious Take:
This is one of those moments where AI feels genuinely redemptive.

Not flashy. Not hype-driven. Just quietly turning ordinary data into life-saving insight.

It’s a reminder that AI isn’t one thing.
The same technology that can fuel distraction and shallow connection can also accelerate healing, understanding, and compassion at scale.

This is AI at its best, serving human flourishing rather than replacing it.

Stay conscious,

Josh

P.S. If you liked this then please forward it on to someone you think would enjoy it. And if someone forwarded you this and you liked it, you can sign up here.