Can we steward God's creation while still making money? What are some ways we should think and act in relation to our planet's resources? Today, cohosts Austin and Andrew speak with Bruce Taylor, who is the founder and President of Enviro-Stewards Inc., which is a social venture that has been selected by B lab as one of the Best Companies for the World by the UN Global Compact Network Canada for their Sustainable Development Goal award.

Enviro-Stewards’ projects for Tim Hortons, Andrew Peller, Southbrook Winery, Dextran, Maple Leaf Foods, Maple Lodge, Campbell Company of Canada, and a food loss project at 50 Food Processors have each won Clean50 national sustainability awards.

0:00 Intro to Topic and Guest Bruce Taylor

1:47 Bruce’s Story

8:34 Why Should Christians Care About the Environment?

12:57 Our Local Bias To Environmental Activism

17:23 Effectiveness vs Impact: Credible, Affordable Journey

22:11 Concepts We Need To Reconsider

25:55 Asking “Why?” to Solve the Real Problem

31:43 Stakeholder Engagement: Understanding Culture

36:06 Enviro-Stewards’ Business Model (https://bthechange.com/business-as-unusual-forging-a-new-model-while-protecting-the-earth-1d0aa1d0489d)

41:30 Bruce’s Opinion On Missions Trips (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBB3CkuRb7E&t=3s&ab_channel=TEDxTalks)

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble, Austin Gravely, and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

The latest Apple ad will be referenced in tech criticism for the next several years. It was so bad that Apple has since apologized for it. But what was so bad? Can there be any good in iPads?

Also, we have a new co-host! Austin Gravely is the former host of the podcast Breaking the Digital Spell and is currently the Social Media Manager of The Gospel Coalition. He is also the Executive Producer of Mending Division Academy, and he works in Youth Ministry at Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, Texas.

0:00 - Intro and NEW co-host!

2:02 - Intent and Impact of the Apple Ad

8:35 - Destroying Nature & Misguided Marketing

12:55 - Good in Everything

17:45 - Who Wants an iPad?

22:17 - Tears of Joy in Apple Products

27:16 - Tools Vs Devices

33:15 - Responsibility

39:50 - Would Jesus Use an iPad? Forms of Godliness vs the power of Godliness.

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble, Joel Jacob, and Austin Gravley, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Kevin Tuer received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1994, and went on to a number of strategic leadership roles, including VP of Engineering at Control Advancements, Co-founder of Handshake VR, the founding Managing Director of the Candian Digital Media Network, and he currently serves as the Cheif Technology Officer at Communitech.

Today we have a wide-ranging conversation related to Kevin's new initiative, the Good AI program. Good AI helps startups strengthen the development, understanding and implementation of ethical AI. They're helping to build actionable strategies to enable Canada's tech founders to create trustworthy AI products and services, and build a brand that customers know they can trust.

0:00 - Into and Background

6:09 - The Tension Btw Innovation and Responsibility

12:45 - Collectively Working On Ethical AI

20:30 - Innovation as Stewardship

25:10 - Who Do We Hold Responsible for AI Failures?

33:55 - Ethics by Design

41:29 - All Ethics Under God

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

What does it look like to listen, to truly listen, in a noisy world?

Today we're joined by Jay Y. Kim, author of Listen, Listen Speak: Hearing God and Being Heard in a Noisy World.

Some Christians emphasize listening as the ultimate form of love, which can lead to passivity. Others emphasize the courageous proclamation of truth, which can lead to arrogance. Jay encourages us to listen and speak and tells us how.

0:00 - Intro

2:01 - Jay's Background

4:47 - Digital Informs, Analog Transforms

8:34 - Are Churches Behind in Using Tech?

16:14 - Fixating on the future vs Prayer

20:45 - Headphones in Grocery Stores

29:05 - Cacophanies, Distress, and Reason

36:53 - Speaking Up On Controversies

48:43 - Awkward Silence on Elevators and WWJD?

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

A core theme in the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once is how we experience a disconnected, anxious, and nihilistic technological world. The movie was about social media, the Internet, and how the digital age has disembodied us, making us feel like we have access to a multiverse via the World Wide Web.

But now, we have AI. The stability that remains is shifting. In this episode, we recap some of the changes we're seeing in the AI space. We also discuss some key aspects of AI "wrappers" and RAGs (Retrieval-augmented generation), which are being used to increase the accuracy of generative AI models with facts fetched from external sources.

Basically, AI is rapidly changing. This episode tells you what those changes are.

To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech or to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Sources/references in this video:

Devin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjHtjT7GO1c

Groq - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UzW_AGX68g

Sora AI - https://openai.com/sora

OpenAI's CTO with a non-answer on where the training data comes from - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAUpxN-EIgU

- Tik Tok Ban https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68556540

- Elon Musk suing Open AI https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-sues-openai-ceo-sam-altman-breach-contract-2024-03-01/

- Klarna AI Assistant replacing customer reps https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-ai-assistant-handles-two-thirds-of-customer-service-chats-in-its-first-month/

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke.

What is philosophy? How does it help us in our pursuit to understand how to live in our world? And how does living in our technological world, or "technoculture," affect our beliefs in God? Today we're joined by Dr. Joseph Minich, the author of Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age.

There are two main parts to this episode. In the first half, we discuss ancient philosophy and it's significance to techies. In the second half, we dive into the thesis of Minich's book, and how our sense of God's existence has changed in our modern secular age.

Minich's Books:

• Enduring Divine Absence
• Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age
• He is also the co-author of various other works including Protestant Social Teaching: An Introduction, Philosophy and the Christian: The Quest for Wisdom in the Light of Christ, and People of the Promise: A Mere Protestant Ecclesiology.

Other resources referenced:

• Jesus the Great Philosopher: Rediscovering the Wisdom Needed for the Good Life by Jonathan Pennington

Chapters:

0:00 - Intro

2:30 - What is Philosophy and Why is it Important for Christians?

7:25 - Joseph Minich's Journey into Philosophy

13:45 - Retrieving Older Philosophical Traditions

19:18 - Retrieving Older Philosophical Traditions

26:54 - The Impact of the Technological Age on Belief in God

35:16 - The Loss of Agency in Modern & Future Labor

45:42 - Reframing Work, Reclaiming Agency, and Finding Purpose

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke. To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show visit whatwouldjesustech.com

As CES24 proved, robots are on the rise. But is this like an IoT (Internet of Things) fad, or is AI on legs here to stay? Andrew learns from Joel, as he unpacks some of the new technologies making it easier to *feel* like you're in the same room as someone else. And Joel asks Andrew to assess this theologically as well as practically, for "virtual church" and for each imitator of Jesus.

0:00 - Intro & Background

1:45 - IoT vs Embodied AI - just another trend?

5:40 - CES24, Apple Vision Pro, MetaVision, AR & VR

9:30 - Holotiles, Simulating Smell, and New Tech

11:20 - Don't Underestimate Physicality

17:35 - If The Tech Gets Better Though...

25:33 - What Makes Virtue Church Unacceptable?

31:15 - Would Jesus Use Embodied AI?

Things & Books Referenced

• Figure 01, a humanoid robot being built by a startup called Figure
• Video on disembodied AGI- Sanctuary AI company (shows robot control) 
• Video of Disney’s HoloTiles Full Original - 
• Lex/Zuck Interview 
• Simulating Smell 
• Analog Church - Jay Y. Kim
• The Life We're Looking For - Andy Crouch
• What God Has To Say About Our Bodies - Sam Alberry
• Cultural Mandate, Grey Sutanto - Themelios
• Grace Restores Nature - Grace In Common Podcast
• One Assembly - Jonathan Leeman
• What Is A Church? The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith

Please send your ideas and feedback to the cohosts, Andrew Noble and Joel Jacob, at whatwouldjesustech@gmail.com. Recorded in Ontario, Canada. Original Music by Abigail Neale. Video and sound editing by Peter Behnke.

To learn more about What Would Jesus Tech and to support the show, visit whatwouldjesustech.com

Will Robotics have its ChatGPT moment? Will Elon Musk become a Christian? Will the 2024 elections be overcome by artificial images? From multi-model AI to deepening embodied desires, Joel Jacob (Product at Splunck) and Andrew Noble (Pastoral Ministry at Grandview Church) predict what they think might happen in 2024.

0:00 - Intro

1:45 - Cisco bought Joel's company. Is he out of a job?

4:02 - 2023 trend: increasing mental health concerns for teens

5:45 - 2023 trend: rise of AI

6:45 - Prediction 1: Multi-modal AI & Robotics

9:30 - Prediction 2: The Increasing Artificiality of the Internet (and a pull to embodied relationships)

12:25 - Prediction 3: Small Uptick in "Metaverse" Adoption (AR & VR traction via Apple & Meta)

18:09 - Prediction 4: A Big Tech Leader Will Become A Christian (and conversely, the rise of techno-religion)

27:36 - Prediction 5: The Inflection Point For Robotics

31:19 - Prediction 6: A New Analogue Dating App Is Coming (wildly specific prediction from Andrew)

35:06 - Prediction 7: The Crypto Winter Ends (it will become harder to mine Bitcoin again in April 2024)

Links:

- Rex Woodbury's 2024 predictions

- What Would Jesus Tech website

- Support us on Patreon