Tag: Doug Smith

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Podcasts

What Christians Should Know About Chatbots, Big Tech, and the Bible

Interview With Doug Smith

Should Christians use chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok? Is AI simply a neutral tool that humans can use for either good or evil? How does the book of Genesis offer clarity to the AI conversation? 

Kicking off Know Why’s 2026 season is Doug Smith, longtime software engineer, lifelong student of the Bible, and author of [Un]Intentional: How Screens Are Secretly Shaping Your Desires and How You Can Break Free, and the forthcoming [Un]Intelligence: The Lies Behind Today’s AI and the Truths You Need to Thrive. In this deep-dive interview, Doug helps us think through the following topics: 

  • What epistemology means and how it helps us understand AI
  • How large language models (LLMs) fundamentally differ from other search engines
  • Whether the “neutral tool” trope applies to AI
  • Why Big Tech founders use spiritual terms to talk about AI
  • And much more. 

Listen to this fascinating conversation for a unique perspective on AI and chatbots that is thoroughly informed by a biblical worldview and relevant for every human being. 

More Resources: 

It’s Time To Be More Intentional With Your Life Than Big Tech.

https://www.estherlightcapmeek.com

How People Are Really Using AI (Harvard Business Review)

Empire of AI by Karen Hao

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

How Bad Are AI Delusions? We Asked the People Treating Them (The New York Times)

Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth

Categories
Podcasts

Are Screens Stealing Our Autonomy? Know About Healthy Tech Habits

Interview with Doug Smith

Are you in control of your screen time… or is it the other way around? Listen as Doug Smith helps kick off Know Why’s series Know about Healthy Tech Habits. In the episode Liberty and Doug discuss his recent book, [Un]Intentional: How Screens Secretly Shape Your Desires and How You Can Break Free, written from his perspective as a former software developer. Doug offers insights that are both sobering and hopeful—you don’t want to miss them!

Identity

Identity is a big question many people wrestle with. Who am I? What do I like? What do I want? What do I believe? We’d like to think that we are fairly autonomous in determining our identity. But Doug argues that isn’t the case.

“We end up thinking we’re constructing a unique identity when we’re just constructing an identity that’s been formed for us and tends to lead us to a bad end,” he told Know Why.


“They’re exploiting weaknesses in our behavioral psychology and neurology to teach us to make decisions that are most profitable for them, but often harmful to us and certainly against our God-given purpose.” 

Doug Smith

What’s forming our identity for us? Our screens—or more precisely, the companies, algorithms, and technology behind them.

Reclaiming Our Habits

There is hope for reclaiming our identity and decision-making willpower, but it involves developing new habits that aren’t centered on screen time. In his book, Doug points to the Bible as helpful in this journey.

“We are learning a lot in terms of the details about how the brain works,” he said. “But what we continue to find is that these truths are just confirming what we’ve already learned in ancient wisdom, especially in the Bible.”

Additional Resources