Direct the Council of General Synod to convene an artificial intelligence (AI) ethics task force to set guiding virtues that will help the Church negotiate faithful engagement as generative artificial intelligence (genAI) technologies shift. The mandate of the task force should include:

1. Review existing scholarly, ecumenical, and other relevant resources as well as craft original work, as appropriate, to assist dioceses, parishes, and individual members with the job of continuing to act in a manner consistent with our baptismal covenant.
2. Provide guidance related to respect for intellectual property rights, personal data protection, environmental stewardship, and other virtues espoused by the Anglican Church of Canada as they find relevant.
3. Consider policies or guiding principles for genAI use by staff, standing committees, and coordinating committees to insure any such use is a fair, transparent, and consistent manner with those principles.
4. Develop methods to distribute these principles to dioceses that wish to take up their own principles and procedures to guide genAI use.

Technology, particularly generative Artificial Intelligence (hereafter “genAI”) is changing quickly. Though our values do not change, how they apply to genAI use does. The Church needs guidance on questions like: Is it acceptable to preach a sermon written entirely by ChatGPT? Is it responsible stewardship of limited resources to replace a staff role with AI tools or does such behaviour fail to respect the dignity of work done by human beings? What is our responsibility to the privacy of parishioner, employee, clergy, and other data, especially given that many genAI companies are US-based, and  OpenAI just signed a contract with the US Department of Defense? How does the use of genAI and cloud computing generally comply with our commitment to steward God’s creation, given its exorbitant water use? But those are the questions facing us today. More questions may arise in the near future. The technology itself may change to become more environmentally-sound, for example, or ongoing litigation may require genAI training to respect copyright, or Canadian companies may get into the market. We need a task force that can guide the Church in adapting swiftly to these and other potential technological changes over the next triennium, while remaining true to the values that are commended to us in the Scriptures, that we have vowed to strive for in the Baptismal Covenant, that God requires of us. This task force can also consider the implications of intellectual property rights, protection of the privacy of parishioner, employee, clergy, and other personal data, and respects our commitment to God’s creation, and our responsibility to sustain and renew the life of the earth as they relate to this technology.

In the normal course, an ordinary motion must be passed by a majority of the members of General Synod present and voting together.

Six members of General Synod may, prior to the question being put, require a vote by Orders, with a majority of each Order being necessary to pass.

If a question passes on a Vote by Orders, any six members (two from each of three different dioceses) may immediately before the next item of business require a vote to be taken by dioceses. A motion passes if a majority (or a tie) of dioceses vote in favour.

Source: Sections 4 and 5 of the Declaration of Principles and sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Rules of Order and Procedure.