The Aims and AI

I. Introduction

This past fall, my University 101 students and I began each class by standing and reciting two core declarations from our founding documents. We declaimed:

The mission of Brigham Young University—founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life.¹

And:

A BYU education should be (1) spiritually strengthening, (2) intellectually enlarging, and (3) character building, leading to (4) lifelong learning and service.²

These declarations form the heart of our mission and aims. Each is grounded in what I call the doctrine of becoming. Our central concern is the formation of souls—what President Spencer W. Kimball called “education for eternity.”³ This morning I hope to connect that core ambition to the peril and the promise of generative AI and to the pressing question of our generation: How do we ensure that generative AI serves student becoming rather than displacing it?

To help answer that question, I will explore the doctrine of becoming and outline four principles that should guide our use of AI on this campus. Then, after a brief preview of the rest of our program, I will conclude by sharing why I believe we should approach this disruptive and destabilizing new era with optimism and resolve, with courage and faith. Although our focus this morning is on AI, our deeper purpose, as always, is to strive toward “becoming BYU”⁴ by helping our students become the people God intends them to become.

II. The Doctrine of Becoming

In his final general conference message, President Russell M. Nelson declared, “The great opportunity before us is to become the people God needs us to be.”⁵ At this university, we strive to help our students become the people God needs them to be. That, in the end, is the overriding objective of becoming BYU.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that before the Creation or the Fall or even the Council in Heaven, “God himself, find[ing] himself in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was greater, . . . saw proper to institute laws, whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself.”⁶ Our Father’s plan empowers His children to become like Him.

President Dallin H. Oaks has taught:

It is not . . . enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we areconverted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to knowsomething, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.⁷

And again:

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to become.⁸

As we strive toward becoming BYU institutionally, let us also help our students strive to become at BYU individually. Their time here should refine, convert, and sanctify them. It should strengthen their spirits, enlarge their intellects, build their characters, and propel their lifelong learning and service. Their time at BYU should help them become the people God needs them to be.

III. Guiding Principles

This overriding purpose raises an inescapable question: What happens to becoming in an age when machines can simulate knowing? We should be candid about what is at stake. The rise of AI raises real academic risks—risks that cognitive capacity might atrophy or original thinking erode; risks of invalidated assessments or unmanageable demands on faculty time. These are not abstract worries; they are real pressures already felt in our classrooms and disciplines. They deserve to be clearly acknowledged and thoughtfully addressed.

And yet, as real as these risks are, they must be met with resolution, not resignation; hardihood, not hand-wringing. We must respond not by retreating from our mission but by leaning ever more deliberately into it. The doctrine of becoming—and the principles that flow from it—can help us meet these risks with clarity and confidence. This morning I will emphasize four enduring principles that can guide our approach. The principles are (1) agency, (2) accountability, (3) work, and (4) revelation.

A. Agency

Theologically as well as pedagogically, agency comes first. Our mission and aims invite us to activate and honor the agency of our students. AI can either amplify that effort or quietly erode it. Elder David A. Bednar has warned that AI “can create a potentially beguiling, addictive, and suffocating influence on the exercise of our moral agency.”⁹ President C. Shane Reese has similarly cautioned that our use of AI must be agency-enhancing rather than agency-reducing.

Maximizing learners’ agency has always been central to good pedagogy. In the age of AI, we must defend that principle with increased clarity and creativity. We must help students learn to choose wisely, not just prompt efficiently.

B. Accountability

Agency has a companion principle: accountability. Students need to be transparent about and accountable for their use of AI, and faculty need to be crystal clear about what uses of AI are permitted or not permitted in their classes. Students should never need to wonder whether their use of AI constitutes cheating; we need to let them know with all the clarity we can muster. Syllabi must name permitted uses, and assignments must define them. If you came this morning expecting a university policy on AI, here’s a concise one: Every class on this campus should have a clearly articulated AI policy, whatever you decide that policy should be. (Departments and colleges might consider unit-wide AI policies.)

C. Work

Agency and accountability both require work. Two years ago, Elder Bednar counseled our students not to “allow the supposed accuracy, speed, and ease of modern technologies to entice [them] to avoid or circumvent the righteous work that invites into [their] life the blessings [they] will need.”¹⁰ We must help our students heed this apostolic counsel. None of the aims of a BYU education can be achieved without work. We must guide our students toward the kind of work that shapes the soul. We must design assignments that require such sanctifying labor.

Elder Bednar has linked the principles of agency and work to the doctrine of becoming. He said:

We undoubtedly can generate and produce fabulous content . . . with AI. But the objective is not merely producing or presentingimpressive content; rather, it is working and becoming what God intends and yearns for us to become.¹¹

Students don’t go to the gym hoping a machine will lift the weights for them. Nor do they come to the university hoping that AI models will spare them the gritty toil of intellectual strain. They want to use AI as a spotter, not a substitute. The temptation to use AI as a substitute will decrease as students see assignments as meaningfully connected to their spiritual, intellectual, and character development. Our students want to stretch, and they want to grow. We too will need to stretch and grow as we revamp assignments and assessments, courses and curricula, to invite diligent work in the age of AI. But this faculty is more than equal to that task.

D. Revelation

Finally, AI will intensify the need for revelation in our work. Brigham Young’s charge “not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God”¹² will apply with greater force. The Holy Ghost sanctifies, and revelation refines. When we teach and learn by the Spirit, we do not merely learn more, we learn in ways that transform hearts, shape souls, and invite becoming.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong said:

Artificial intelligence cannot replace revelation or generate truth from God. We have the responsibility to ensure that the Holy Ghost can attest to the truth and authenticity of all we say and share.¹³

This applies to both our teaching and our scholarship at BYU. With revelation as our guide, we can use AI to elevate our scholarship and teaching beyond anything we can presently imagine.

To that end, we must cultivate—and help our students cultivate—the skill and the gift of discernment. It will not be enough to impart knowledge; we must instill virtue. It will not be enough to track trends; we must learn to become wise.

May heaven bless us all with wisdom to apply the principles of agency, accountability, work, and revelation as we strive in the age of AI to advance our mission and aims.

IV. Conclusion

Throughout the history of our people, prophets and apostles have reiterated that technological development is “part of the Lord hastening His work in the latter days.”¹⁴ Elder Bednar has taught that “miraculous . . . innovations and inventions . . . have enabled and accelerated God’s work of salvation and exaltation.”¹⁵

The Lord’s servants are keenly aware of the challenges posed by such technologies, but they have remained optimistic and have emphasized opportunities. A quarter century ago, President Oaks warned of various pitfalls and distractions associated with the rising dominance of the internet. But he then added:

I hope that these cautions on the need for focus will not be understood as hostile to selective use of the new technology that has put such a wealth of information at our fingertips. In this I echo Brigham Young, who declared:

“Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God. . . . We should take advantage of all these great discoveries . . . and . . . prepare [the rising generation] to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work.”¹⁶

Our approach to AI should be balanced and measured—“neither giddy nor alarmist,” in Elder Gong’s words.¹⁷ “We should not be afraid of or attempt to hide from AI,” said Elder Bednar, but we should be “aware of and guard against its perils.”¹⁸ We need to be clear eyed about the risks and optimistic about the possibilities. We need to cultivate temperance and exercise faith.

My invitation is for us to embrace faith, hope, and charity as we face an uncertain future. I don’t believe anyone really knows what the future course of AI’s development will look like. Some things we can predict with confidence, such as that AI is here to stay and that it will transform research and writing, teaching and mentoring, and collaborative and creative work in deep and enduring ways. But many things remain mere guesswork and speculation.

But there are some things we do know.

We know “that it is the destiny of Brigham Young University to become what past and present prophets knew it could become.”¹⁹

We know that “with the consecration and leadership of this community, BYU ‘will become the great university of the Lord—not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.’”²⁰

We know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will roll forward in majesty and power until it fills the entire world.²¹

We know that the Savior will one day “return to earth . . . [to] rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, [as] every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him.”²²

Friends and colleagues, I do not believe that the Lord restored His Church and established this university only to have them fail at the hands of an emergent technology. I do not believe that God’s purposes and plan can be thwarted by a man-made tool.

What I do believe is that, with the Lord’s help, these tools can be harnessed to advance our mission to help our students become the people God needs them to be.

I believe that, with the best efforts of our faculty and the inspiration of heaven, we can use AI to extend our reach, enrich our teaching, and increase our capacity to assist our students and others “in their quest for perfection and eternal life.”

The revelations foretell “a time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld.”²³ I believe that AI can help us hasten and steward this promised flood of light. I have faith that, in the hands of this faculty, AI will not replace the work of becoming but will focus and accelerate it.

Yes, there are challenges ahead—deep and vexing and hard. Let us meet them with faith. Let us be hopeful. Let us be optimistic. Let us be of good cheer. We get to choose how we respond.

May we choose to use AI to advance our mission and aims.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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