Keith Getty has a message for Christians worried about what artificial intelligence could do to society - and his answer isn't another app, algorithm or technological safeguard. Sing the Bible.
The Grammy-nominated hymn writer behind "In Christ Alone" is sounding the alarm about what he believes could be one of AI's darker consequences: an even deeper epidemic of loneliness and disconnection. And Getty isn't mincing words about just how disruptive he thinks the technology could become.
"As we enter the AI age," Getty told The Christian Post, the changes people encounter over the next decade could be profoundly "dislocating." Pointing to what he sees as the emotional fallout of previous technological revolutions, Getty argued that the internet contributed to depression and social media to anxiety - and warned that AI could have an enormous impact on loneliness and the loss of genuine friendship.
His solution? Christians need to get their eyes - and their voices - fixed on something considerably older than ChatGPT.
"I think all the more important that we sing of Heaven, that we think of Heaven, that our trust is [in] eternal things," Getty said. "Ultimately ... our hope has to be in Heaven."
The comments come as Keith and Kristyn Getty prepare for the 2026 Sing! Conference, returning to Nashville Sept. 7-9 under the theme "Symphony of Scripture." This year's gathering marks 500 years since William Tyndale's English New Testament and will explore the Bible's influence on worship, theology, language, culture and the arts.
And AI is officially getting a seat at the table.
Christian apologists John Lennox and Wes Huff are scheduled to participate in what Getty described as a first-of-its-kind discussion about "biblical intelligence versus artificial intelligence and the future."
But Getty's bigger concern goes beyond whether Christians should embrace or fear AI. He believes the Church needs to recover something it has possessed for centuries: Christians who actually know biblical truth well enough to sing it.
"There are many goals with the Sing! Conference: congregational singing, to improve high artistry, but I think at the heart of it is helping people sing the Bible," Getty explained.
Getty argues that singing isn't merely the musical portion of a church service before the sermon begins. It is theology entering the memory. What Christians repeatedly sing, he contends, helps determine what they remember - and ultimately what they believe.
He even points back to Martin Luther, whom Getty calls his "hero." According to Getty, Luther wanted ordinary Christians not simply to hear Scripture explained by pastors but to carry biblical truth out of church through songs they could sing in their own language.
"People would carry the Bible out of church by being able to sing the Bible in their own tongue," Getty said, arguing that Luther understood singing as something that could carry Scripture into everyday life from Monday through Saturday.
Getty also notes that Scripture itself gives music and poetry an enormous role. He estimates that roughly 20 percent of the Bible consists of poems and songs, insisting that singing is simultaneously worship and instruction.
That makes his AI warning especially intriguing. At a moment when machines can generate songs, sermons, images, conversations and even simulated companionship in seconds, Getty is pushing Christians back toward something profoundly human: people physically gathering together and singing eternal truths to one another.
The upcoming Sing! gathering will bring some serious theological firepower to Nashville. John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, Os Guinness, Malcolm Guite, Wes Huff and John Lennox are among those scheduled to participate. Piper is expected to tell the story of Tyndale and the enormous personal cost he paid to make Scripture available in English.
For Getty, however, all those conversations eventually come back to worship.
"All great movements result in doxology," he declared.
And perhaps his most memorable line sounds almost like a challenge to an increasingly artificial world: "The world was sung into being."
"Heaven is a picture of God's people singing," Getty added, "and we want to help equip the Church to engage more fully in worship."
AI may be able to generate a hymn in seconds. Getty's point is that it still cannot replace a congregation that actually believes what it sings.
