It goes without saying that AI has completely, and perhaps, irrevocably changed our society. We’ve covered some of those changes here at Christ and Pop Culture, and the challenges they represent. Perhaps ironically, one area that has been particularly affected by AI is publishing, and sites like ours that publish submitted articles.
AI agents and chatbots make it easier than ever to churn out content with relatively minimal effort. However, we value authors who strive to write thoughtfully and meaningfully about the prevailing culture. Since day one, we have held ourselves to a high standard of cultural criticism, eschewing hot takes and shallow commentary, and instead, digging deep and embracing nuance and complexity.
Maintaining that standard requires time, hard work, and intentionality, though, and we have come to the decision that an article essentially churned out by an AI chatbot as its best attempt to answer a prompt—however carefully worded that prompt might be—does not meet that standard.
We realize that AI has many benefits for authors when it comes to research, checking grammar, and perhaps even suggesting article ideas. However, we believe that writing is best when it comes straight from the human heart, mind, and soul without any intervening artificial intelligence. To that end, we are enacting a strict no AI-generated article policy from this point moving forward.
What this means, practically speaking, is that if we determine that a draft has been generated entirely or in part by AI tools, then we will not publish it. Furthermore, if we discover that an existing article was generated entirely or in part by AI tools, then we will remove it from the site. We also recommend that authors exercise restraint in trusting AI to edit their drafts. Every article that we publish is first reviewed by at least one human editor who works with the author to improve and ensure its accuracy and clarity, and we believe this to be a vital part of the publishing process.
We continue to welcome submissions and we strive to promote and champion authors who engage thoughtfully and meaningfully with pop culture in its many forms. But we want those submissions to come from a uniquely and wholly human point of view that’s the result of being created in God’s image. As AI continues to permeate our culture, often in the form of deceptive, error-filled “slop,” we believe that this distinction will become vitally important for our readers, and for the church as a whole.
If you want to support this standard of cultural criticism, then consider becoming a member today.
