The question isn’t simply whether AI is good or bad, but good or bad for whom?
This episode with Joshua Baru is shaped by that question. Joshua is an AI researcher and data science lead in Nairobi, Kenya, and he brings a perspective too often missing from Western AI conversations: the perspective of justice, labor, and the common good. In our conversation, he challenges the idea that AI is a neutral tool floating above human realities. Instead, he asks who designs these systems, who benefits from them, and who bears the cost when they go wrong.
We talk about AI in the courtroom, the importance of human accountability, and the hidden labor behind supposedly frictionless tools. Joshua also introduces the idea of digital colonialism: the extraction of data, land, and labor from the global majority for the benefit of powerful corporations elsewhere. It’s one of the most illuminating and unsettling conversations in the series.
Again and again, Joshua brings the discussion back to distinctly Christian ground. Christ is sovereign over AI, our deepest problem isn’t technological but spiritual, and our calling is to love God and love our neighbor even here. Joshua joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to explore what AI reveals about justice, power, and human sin, and how Christians can pursue technological wisdom without losing sight of the people hidden beneath the system.
Resources Mentioned:
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan
Authority by Jonathan Leeman
PREORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity, featuring Baru, Watkin, Brett McCracken, and many others, such as Ben Sasse and Alan Noble.
JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners.
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