What are the Ethical Ramifications of Pastors and Leaders using AI to Record Meetings & Conversations?
Should you be using AI to record your meetings and conversations?
I had a conversation with someone recently who expressed to me a fear that their pastor was using smart glasses and was secretly recording his conversations with parishioners. I was not able to independently verify whether this was true or not but if it was true, it would be deeply concerning.
In this article I’ll explore why I think it is a mistake for a pastor to use AI to record their conversations, or to ‘protect’ themselves from what they believe are unsafe situations.
What are smart glasses?
There have been many attempts at bringing smart glasses to market. Google was one of the most famous failed attempts. They called their product Google Glass, unveiled in 2012, it featured a small prism display above the right eye. It had a camera, GPS, could help with navigation, give the user notifications and also search the web.
Several factors combined to derail the product including:
Privacy concerns. People worried they were being secretly recorded.
High price. At the time it was $1,500 for one pair.
Limited battery life.
Awkward appearance.
Meta jumped into the space in 2021 and partnered with Ray-Ban to provide glasses that people wanted to wear. Over the years they iterated their product offering. Meta glasses offered photos, video recording, music, taking phone calls, and voice assistant. Over the years they improved the cameras, the microphones, included open-ear speakers, added longer battery life and provided much better AI integration. Meta glasses became the first smart glasses to achieve meaningful consumer adoption.
Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI)
With the advent of ChatGPT in 2023, the impact of smart glasses on everyday life increased in ways that many may not appreciate. AI can process huge amount of data effortlessly. It can catalog it, easily turn audio into text, search through that text anywhere from seconds to a few short minutes, and put it together in whatever way you want.
Modern smart-glasses are now shifting from the idea of putting a display on your face to being an AI assistant that is always available and sees what you see. It is easy to see why many people would want something like this. AI can help you remember the names of people, appointments or tasks that include these people that you may have forgotten about. It can help sort through a mountain of information quickly and provide you with analysis in ways that were impossible previously.
These AI assisted glasses promise live translation, object recognition, help with navigation, hands-free photography, audio on demand, and voice control of AI making it easy to assign tasks to your AI assistant while you quickly pivot to other priorities.
Should Pastors and Church Leaders use Smart Glasses?
I get why some techie pastors / leaders might see smart-glasses as a potential force multiplier for many of the reasons that I have already listed. It is my firm belief however, that given the unique position responsibilities and expectations placed on pastors, doing so would be a mistake.
Pastoral Trust is Everything. A pastor deals with so many sensitive, confidential matters that people don’t want others to know besides their pastor. Marital problems, addition struggles, abuse, financial struggles, doubts about faith, criminal behaviour, suicidal thoughts, and family conflict are just some of these situations.
Without trust, it is impossible for a pastor to properly lead their congregation. Confidentiality is foundational to trust. If people come to believe that their Pastor is secretly recording every interaction, it will make them think twice before confiding in them.
As yourself this question: “Would this person have spoken as openly if they knew I was recording?”
If the answer is ‘probably not,’ then the recording altered the pastoral relationship.
Pastor, did you get Informed Consent? Consent should be informed, voluntary, specific, and obtained before the recording begins. If your church has a sign publicly displayed warning people that their conversations may be recorded, they will not consider this to include being secretly recorded by the pastor. A sign like this almost always refers to the live stream or someone who has been officially assigned as the church photographer taking pictures.
A person should know you are recording. You should tell them why you are recording the conversation. They should be informed as to how long the recording will be kept and whether AI is going to process the recording. You should tell them if you plan on transcribing the conversation and you should let the person know how it can be deleted.
If you aren’t comfortable asking for informed consent, you should not be recording the conversation in the first place.
NOTE: Because a Pastor possesses spiritual authority, consent can become coercive. A church member may feel uncomfortable saying: ‘No, I’d rather not be recorded.’ Tread carefully here Pastor.
In the digital age, Confidentiality can never be 100% guaranteed.
Nothing in the digital age is fully protected. Files can be hacked, accounts compromised, AI providers breached, devices lost. Despite the best of intentions, no Pastor can be 100% sure that data will remain secure. The Pastor may not even realize that they do not have the final say on what happens to the recordings. Depending on the jurisdiction, courts can compel a Pastor to turn over their recordings in legal proceedings.
Recordings last forever. What gets put on the internet is easily copied and can live long after a person dies.
AI introduces another layer to the risk: Many smart glasses today can transcribe conversations, summarize meetings, identify speakers, analyze the sentiment of the speaker, and upload the recordings to the cloud, all of it automatically. If people know they are being recorded, they will be much more careful about what they say. Teams that don’t trust each other don’t work well together. Trust is earned and it is built on the foundation of confidentiality and accountability. Recording / transcribing meetings, especially ones where sensitive matters are discussed, will subtly but surely negatively affect the quality of decisions rendered.
Why would a Pastor / Church Leader use Smart Glasses?
Despite the long list of risks and dangers associated with the use of smart glasses, there are some benefits to their use. For one things, they allow a Pastor to make accurate follow-up notes. It is harder to forget things and much easier to keep them organized.
A big reason why a Pastor might want smart-glasses is to protect against a threat or against abusive behaviour. Pastors sometimes have to deal with people at their worst. Some unscrupulous people will accuse the Pastor of negative / abusive behaviour. Sometimes the criticism is merited but often it is groundless. The Pastor can find themselves in a he said / she said situation. Having a recording of the conversation provides objective proof of the encounter.
Pastors are human too. They can get traumatized. They are often dealing with conflict of one type or another. It can feel scary to be exposed and possibly face consequences up to and including the loss of one’s job because of toxic people. While the temptation may be strong to record conversations, I would argue that except for extreme circumstances, it is the wrong decision. Even in this extreme circumstances, it is usually a better idea to disclose that you are recording than it is to conceal it.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
John C. Maxwell taught me an important principle that is often overlooked by today’s leaders. He taught me that the higher the responsibilities you have as a leader, the less personal freedoms you have. It is counterintuitive to how most people think of leadership. Often, people assume that the leader can do whatever they want. While this is technically true, if the leader acts without regard for those under them and makes decisions and takes actions that are personally beneficial without extending the same privileges to their subordinates, they will find trust disappear. Without trust, you cannot effectively lead unless you resort to using fear and bullying tactics (which I would argue are not effective leadership.)
Can you use smart-glasses in a professional context? Sure. Can a Pastor use smart-glasses in ministry? Sure. Should they though? In my opinion, the risks outweigh any benefits you gain by their use.
If there is one principle an effective leader must be careful of following, it is to do everything in their power to earn the trust of their people. Trust is paramount.
If you insist on using Smart Glasses, be transparent
If after reading this post you still want to use smart glasses in ministry, I would urge you to be transparent and open when you use them. If you are using smart glasses as an AI assistant, make sure you explain this clearly to your co-workers / parishioners. People should not be left to guess whether you are recording or not.
Before a person discusses a sensitive matter with you, be sure to disclose your use of smart glasses and whether or not you are recording the conversation. If you do choose to use smart glasses to help record a conflict / mediation, make sure that all parties are aware of this and agree to its use. Make sure to send them a copy of the recording once the meeting is completed so that you cannot be accused of secret recording later or even of having doctored or altered the recording to your personal benefit.
If you already have difficult relationships, be prepared to be falsely accused on your use of smart glasses. When people are in conflict, they almost always think the worst of others and attribute to them the worst character flaws. This is one of the reasons why I believe the use of smart glasses in ministry just isn’t worth the aggravation.
Whatever you do, if you practice transparency, honesty, and fairness, you will experience far less grief in your use of AI and of smart glasses specifically.
Joseph Duchesne writes to help Christians think and act biblically using Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of a couple of books, The Last Crisis and Discover the One, both available on Amazon.