Report: Gospel Coalition Paid $200K To Create Anti-AI Content

The Gospel Coalition received a grant of $200K to speak out and create content against the present and future dangers of AI, according to a recent report in Effort News.

Founded in 2014, the Future of Life Institute is a left-wing nonprofit organization whose mission is to “steer transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks,” with an emphasis on opposing “developing or deploying AI technologies that pose large-scale and extreme risk to humanity.”

Far from being measured, critics have accused them of promoting hysteria and baseless impending apocalyptic scenarios as a result of the use of AI.

Future of Life Institute is one of the groups that have been plying religious NGOs like seminaries and religious-affinity groups with grants in exchange for pronouncements and statements against AI, including awarding 16 grants in 2026 totaling $1,560,276.

Within the Protestant stream of recipients, some of the winners of these grants include World Council of Churches, American Shield, Wheaton College, Lausanne Movement, Project Imago Dei, and The Gospel Coalition.

According to the grant page on FLI’s website, The Gospel Coalition received $200,000.00 for addressing theologically sound use of AI in its Silicon Spiritualities podcast, chiefly, with the assurance that it will be a topic at the Keller Center Annual Fellows retreat, the TGC Women’s Conference, and various ministry leader training sessions.

Michael Graham, the Program Director for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, is overseeing the grant project.The grant was announced on May 12 and the first episode of the “Silicon Spiritualities” podcast was released on July 13.

Hosted by ‘Biblical Critical Theory’ author Christopher Watkins, the show features a rotating guest list of TGC mainstays, such as Rachel Gilson, Michael Keller, Brett McCracken, and Michael Graham. They have released 8 episodes so far, with metrics on YouTube ranging from a high of 2,000 listeners for episode 8, to 621 for episode 6.

As far as we can see, there is no disclosure on TGC’s website that they received a grant for this effort, or that its creation was funded by an outside anti-AI organization.

In the same vein, TGC released “Our Line in the Sand on AI: TGC’s Missional Opportunity,” last month, reportedly one of the deliverables.

They also announced the release of a new book, The AI Apocalypse, featuring all the guests from the podcast.

Notably, TGC has also posted seven articles in the last two weeks warning about the dangers of AI, making it unclear how much of focus on AI simply reflects all the writers’ shared preexisting views, or the fruit of a narrative funded by outside sources.

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For a helpful discussion on the shortfalls of TGC’s AI position, see this article by Jason Swan Clark.

Update. TGC’s Collin Hansen shared a statement on X, with comments turned off, addressing the issue. Notably, he does mention the lack of disclosure.

Yesterday I was asked about a grant that TGC received from FLI related to our work on AI and Christianity. I think it could be helpful for me to take a moment to separate fact from fiction and speculation.

TGC first began writing about AI in 2017 and began to answer frequently asked questions about the subject in 2019. Our editorial policy, adopted in December 2023, explicitly banned the publication of resources written by generative AI, and it was updated this summer in light of the number of AI written pieces we were rejecting. So far this year we have released multiple long-term projects with more in the works aimed at helping Christians navigate the most rapidly and widely adopted technology in history.

Because of our early attention to the issue, TGC has become a leading voice on AI issues among Christian publishers. We are unashamed about our position on AI: while we see some positive effects as a utility, AI also has demonstrated dangerous capacity for dehumanization, especially by reversing gains in literacy and critical thinking that Christians in earlier generations promoted for the advance of the gospel and sound theology.

We continue to support church leaders as they discern redemptive uses of AI in a confusing, ever-changing landscape. As we have published on this issue, many have taken notice, including foundations. Some, like FLI, have sought to support our work, awarding TGC grants as we continue to contend for our positions, which are grounded in biblical anthropology. The scope of the FLI grant is clearly identified on their website:

“The Gospel Coalition, a leading evangelical Christian website, will address theologically sound use of AI in its ‘Silicon Spiritualities’ podcast, Keller Center Annual Fellows retreat, TGC Women’s Conference, and ministry leader training sessions.”

The update to our editorial policy was not connected to the FLI grant in any fashion. We respect that our priorities and convictions will rarely overlap completely with foundations. The same was true in similar previous grants on other subjects from Templeton (on the New City Catechism) and Kern (on faith, work, and economics). Guided by our foundation documents and governed by our board and council, no grant or donation dictates what we write, what we publish, what we believe, or what we participate in. Our convictions have never been for sale; they never will be.

TGC intends to remain a leading voice on the relationship of Christianity and AI as the issues daily and even hourly evolve. The church leaders we serve expect nothing less; the times demand our sharpest thinking and prayerful discernment.

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