He continued, “We are talking about artificial intelligence today and it looks like the highest point in technological advancement, but very soon something will come out that is better than artificial intelligence.”
The member of the Clergy of Nigeria’s Makurdi Diocese who celebrated 40 years of Priestly ministry in June 2021 went on to question the preparedness of the Church to part of the diffusion of innovations.
“The question is that are we as Church prepared to leverage on this AI for evangelization? Are we preparing to move up any time a new media technology comes in? Are we playing a special role in the social media feeds at the moment? Are we present in all social media platforms? Are we prepared to use artificial intelligence for what (it) can do for us?” Fr. Alumuku posed.
In his considered opinion, “there is a lot that artificial intelligence can do for us as Church if we adopt it in our evangelization drive.”
“We are playing catch up because at some point the church realized that we should have been doing that as well,” he told ACI Africa during the October 12.
Fr. Alumuku’s sentiments about AI echo those of the National Director of Social Communications in Nigeria, who, in July, cautioned Catholic Church leaders and media practitioners against the temptation “to ignore” problem-solving and decision-making capabilities mediated by computers.
“The beauty and challenges of the AI technology in particular is one which Catholic leaders and media practitioners cannot afford to ignore, as we have often acted towards many other past technologies,” Fr. Michael Nsika Umoh said in a message published July 4.
Fr. Umoh added, “To say the least, the AI has the existential capacity to determine ‘what is’, without boundaries.”
The Nigerian Catholic Priest underscored the need to invest time, talent, and resources to enhance full participation in engaging contemporary technology “because the consequence for lateness or indifference can be very devastating.”
Abah Anthony John is a Nigerian Journalist with great enthusiasm and interest for Catholic Church Communication and Media Apostolate. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Benue State University, Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria. He has vast experience in Print, Electronic and Multi-Media Production.
