Sermon Writing and ChatGPT: Don’t Give Your Intellectual Property Away

Sermon Writing and ChatGPT: Don’t Give Your Intellectual Property Away

It’s Friday evening, and you’re working on your sermon draft. You like your theological claim, you have your three points, and you have some ideas for your close. However, you need some help filling in the blanks and then tying it all together. Perhaps better turns of phrase, smoother transitions, and more impactful illustrations will help to bring more life to your sermon. A few preacher friends told you they are using ChatGPT (Artificial Intelligence) to assist them with sermon brainstorming and sometimes sermon writing. You head over to ChatGPT, create an account, and enter your request:

Preacher: I need help editing a sermon

ChatGPT: Of course, I’d be happy to help! Please upload the document you’d like me to edit, and let me know any specific instructions or areas you want me to focus on.

You have walked down into the AI rabbit hole and taken your intellectual property (your sermon) and copyright rights with you. In this ever-evolving world of AI and intellectual property rights, I would advise you to tread very lightly because you may one day find out you’ve given it all away.

Preachers are some of the most creative and prolific content creators in the world. Those pastoring in the local church context are tasked on a weekly basis with writing and delivering a sermon that may vary in length between 500 to 2,500+ words. This act of being creatively and divinely inspired and then placing this inspiration into a tangible form (sermon manuscript) serves as a foundational aspect of copyright law in the United States. The act of creative expression was so valued in the early days of this country that legislators ratified five exclusive rights to protect a copyright owner. 

Exclusive rights:

• Reproduce copies of the work
• Prepare derivative works based on the original work
• Distribute copies of the work to the public
• Perform the work publicly
• Display the work publicly

The above exclusive rights belong to the copyright owner; however, what happens when more than one person isinvolved in the creation process? For our purposes, what happens to those exclusive rights when ChatGPT helps us write our sermon? As you can see from the nature of the exclusive rights, this can be a lucrative question. 

I decided to ask ChatGPT a few questions about submitted sermons and copyright. After some back-and-forth, this exchange helped to summarize ChatGPT’s position regarding copyright ownership of submitted sermons.

Me: First, you said, “The 1,200-word sermon where each of us contributed 600 words would likely be considered a joint work, with both you and me as co-authors holding copyright to the entire sermon.” Thenyou said, “No, ChatGPT, as an artificial intelligence, cannot own copyrights.” Which one is correct?

ChatGPT: Both statements are correct, but they pertain to different aspects of copyright ownership:

1. Joint Authorship: Refers to the legal concept of joint authorship. This means that both you (the human author) and ChatGPT (as a tool facilitating significant creative input) could be considered joint authors of the final work with shared copyright ownership.

2. AI Copyright Ownership: Under current copyright laws, artificial intelligences like ChatGPT cannot hold copyright ownership independently. While ChatGPT can assist in the creation of a work and may contribute to it significantly, it does not have legal personhood or the ability to own copyrights.

In summary, both you and ChatGPT could be considered joint authors of the 1,200-word sermon, but ChatGPT itself cannot independently hold copyright to the work. Instead, the copyright ownership would typically reside with you, with ChatGPT’s contributions being considered part of the collaborative effort.

ChatGPT is a machine and cannot be the owner of a registered U.S. copyright because U.S. Copyright law requires “human authorship.” OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, acknowledges its device is not currently capable of copyright ownership; however, it is not relinquishing its underlying right of co-authorship to a copywritten work. If a human contributed 600 words to a 1,200-word sermon, that would likely be considered a “substantial contribution” to the sermon and entitle them to copyright co-ownership rights in that sermon. 

Why does this matter? I believe ChatGPT wants to retain the possibility of future copyright co-ownership rights. With the volatility in our federal court system, the willingness to ignore legal precedent and the influence of business interestson the Supreme Court, it may only be a matter of time before the “human authorship” requirement in U.S. Copyright law is expanded to include AI. This expanded definition could lead to the instant dilution of a preacher’s exclusive copyright interests in their sermons, articles, books, workshop materials, etc. 

In my opinion, it’s a gamble to include ChatGPT or any AI platform in the development of your sermons. The ease of use and speed of response make it tempting, but the AI rabbit hole has many twists, turns, and unforeseen dead-ends. Let’s continue to trust the spark of creativity that can only come from the prompting of the Holy Spirit. If that means a planned 3-point sermon only gets one really good point, let the Holy Spirit that gave you the spark of creativity do the rest.

The Reverend Dr. Elliott Robinson, JD, DMin, is the Assistant Pastor at New Bethel AME Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Elliott is the Creator of Imagineer Preaching, a preaching system that focuses on the art of storytelling in narrative preaching. He is an Adjunct Faculty member at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, a preacher, lecturer, workshop facilitator, and writer.