Ken Powers CEO of Let's Church: The Best A.I. Search Resource on the Internet! DMW#190

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October 4, 2023

This week Greg sat down with Ken Powers. Ken is a software engineer and the CEO of Let's Church. They talked about this unique platform that allows AI driven video and audio search, transcripts, and timestamps. They also discussed how a platform like this can be useful for ministry resource and research. They finished up the episode with Ken's thoughts on AI, and how it can be used for the Glory of God. Be sure to check out Let's church and search their archive, and if you feel so inclined, donate to this exciting project. Enjoy! Check out Let's Church here: https://lets.church/channel/dmw Donate to Let's church here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/5da9e1c3-a8e2-4bb4-817a-5dbbb968ec6b Dead Men Walking Website & Merch: http://www.dmwpodcast.com

00:04: Exploring Theology, Doctrine, and all of the Fascinating Subjects in Between, Broadcasting from an Undisclosed Location, Dead Men Walking starts now.
00:20: Well hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Dead Men Walking Podcast.
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00:44: Wow, what do we got going on this week? Well, we got a lot of stuff going on.
00:47: I'm not going to spend too much time on it.
00:49: You know, we're preparing for the CrossPolitik Fight, Laugh, Feast Conference, which we will be at October 11th through 14th.
00:57: So if you're in Kentucky at the Creation Museum, come down and see us.
01:00: We'll be live podcasting from that conference, reuniting with some old friends, making some new ones, taking the camper down there with a buddy of mine.
01:11: We saw that the hotels were sold out.
01:13: So guess what? I got a campsite.
01:15: We're going to do some fall camping, going to take it down.
01:17: I'm in Michigan, southern Michigan.
01:18: So it's only about three and a half, four hours for us.
01:20: I pulled the camper longer than that.
01:22: So, heck, if you're listening to this and you see us at the podcast booth and you want to come hang out at a campsite afterwards, we're going to have the fire going, the s'mores going, the Bible's open, the bourbon flowing.
01:35: And maybe we'll light up a few cigars as well, too.
01:38: But we also have some exciting episodes coming up in the next few weeks.
01:42: Obviously, we'll be covering the conference through some episodes.
01:47: Chris Larson from Ligonier Ministries, president of Ligonier Ministries, going to be on the week after that.
01:52: Look out for that episode on the 11th.
01:54: But other than that, not a whole lot going on.
01:57: I hope you guys are enjoying your fall here in Michigan.
02:00: We're a four-season state.
02:01: So we are just getting into fall.
02:02: And then the last few days, it's been 89 degrees.
02:06: So we're having that crazy relapse the 1st of October.
02:09: But we're going to get into colors changing here.
02:12: Hope you guys are enjoying fall wherever you're at, even if you're not in a four-season state.
02:16: But we definitely are.
02:18: But I want to get right into it.
02:19: I don't want to talk too long.
02:21: I met this gentleman in Tullahoma, Tullahoma, Tennessee, at the Shadows conference that you guys listened to.
02:29: I broke that up into a couple episodes.
02:31: We had some interviews.
02:32: And this gentleman just happened to meet him and start talking to him.
02:36: He said, I'm doing this new project.
02:38: Would you mind if I kind of experimented with your channel on it? I said, absolutely.
02:43: It is Mr.
02:44: Ken Powers, owner and creator of Let's Church.
02:46: How are you, Ken? Doing good.
02:48: Thank you for having me.
02:48: Yeah.
02:50: So do you do a lot of podcasts or no? Is this kind of podcast? This is my first podcast.
02:56: This is, um, yeah, I, I, I have, um, I, I have the re 20 from electro voice, but, uh, that that's for zoom calls.
03:05: Hey, it's working good.
03:07: You sound good over here.
03:08: And, uh, I'm sure this will be painless.
03:10: So new to podcasting, but not new to entrepreneurship and, uh, technical coding and, uh, all these things, because you've got a really cool product, which we're going to get into, uh, shortly, but first tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
03:26: I know I said we met down in Tullahoma, um, you know, what was it last February, but, uh, tell us your journey, maybe a little bit of your testimony or just some personal stuff about us.
03:34: We can get to know you, uh, here on the podcast.
03:37: Yeah.
03:38: So, yeah.
03:39: Hi, my name is Ken powers.
03:40: Um, I'm a Christian husband, father, software engineer.
03:43: You could say dead man walking.
03:46: Uh, if I could borrow the name of the show here, uh, currently living and working in Massachusetts, uh, with my wife, Laura and my, uh, our daughter Vera Bella.
03:56: And, uh, yeah, like Greg's been saying, I founded in a five Oh one C three nonprofit organization called let's church, uh, dedicated to providing free technology resources to churches and Christian ministries.
04:08: So right now, what that looks like is a free streaming platform with no ads and fully searchable transcripts and some really cool features on the way.
04:17: Yeah.
04:18: So how do you want to do this? Do you want to jump into what the idea of, uh, let's church was, or, or should we talk, yeah, let's talk about the idea of it first and we'll jump into some of the cool features that you have.
04:30: So, um, so what is let let's church at the 30,000 foot view? What was the idea? And then has it morphed into something different from your original idea or is it pretty close to what you think? Sure.
04:43: So, um, very early on when Laura and I first got married, we had some ideas about a, uh, uh, church technology platform.
04:51: There were some.
04:52: Uh, ideas going around, um, you know, like things about websites streaming, like just applying my technical skillset to, uh, churches, ministries in general.
05:03: And, um, Laura is actually the one who came up with the name when, when she said, how, what about let's church? It literally just came to her and I was like, there's no way that domain name is available.
05:15: And when I, when I, yeah, so yeah, got a let's church.com.net.org.
05:22: Let's start church.
05:23: All of them.
05:24: I got them immediately.
05:26: Um, yeah, yeah.
05:27: So, um, yeah, it wasn't until a little while later, I was working on another project for a while called instant Bible.
05:34: Um, okay.
05:36: Which is available at instant dot Bible that that's just like the idea there is just searching the Bible really quickly.
05:41: But, um, it came to be eventually I had a prototype of a, um, of a media platform, a media processing pipeline that could take transcripts and make them fully searchable.
05:54: And I was listening to some backlog episodes of the dividing line while I'm And I heard James White, uh, say, uh, man, could you imagine the dividing line archives with fully searchable transcripts? And here I am sitting in front of my code going like, yeah, well, I'm like, Hey man, I already have this.
06:18: Um, and you know, I, I, I ran that by Laura and she said, you know, uh, he's going to be at a conference like an hour and a half away from here.
06:26: And, uh, so went to the conference, showed him what I had, what I, what I, what I did is, um, I pulled up the phone search for searchable transcripts and pulled up the exact minute and a second where he himself was saying, man, can you imagine the dividing line archives of fully searchable transcripts? And, um, yeah.
06:46: Yeah.
06:47: So, so that, okay.
06:48: So, so you had this idea, so you're working on instant Bible search the Bible.
06:53: So a search, oh, you're a software engineer.
06:54: So you're always thinking probably things about searchability algorithm, like, you know, efficiency, all those things.
07:02: Um, and maybe we can get into that a little bit after we do the demo on let's church too.
07:06: Cause I'd be interested to know your take on some of this AI stuff as well, since you're in that space.
07:11: But, um, so you were always kind of thinking that way, like what's a, what's a way that I can efficiently get information or more efficiently search information for believers like, like Bible or Christian podcasts, things like that.
07:22: Was that kind of the idea? Yeah.
07:24: Yeah.
07:24: Precisely.
07:25: And, um, some like you, you might be thinking like, Hey, I remember a time when someone said a thing, but I don't remember the video.
07:34: Um, or you might be listening to a podcast and someone references something previously.
07:39: So I told you about this one with a deadman walking in particular, you had mentioned the concept of the rod of correction.
07:45: Um, but all you said was in a previous episode, we've talked about this.
07:49: And so I went to let's church and I took in rod of correction and it wasn't in the title or description, but there it was in the transcript and it pulled, it pulled it, uh, pulled up right up exactly where you were talking about.
08:01: And then, uh, one of the most encouraging pieces of feedback I received was actually at the open air theology conference where we met, um, Keith Foskey.
08:11: Um, so I, I had been thinking of it from a like consumer perspective.
08:17: Um, like, Hey, it's going to help me consume media.
08:21: But he, his immediate reaction was I can use this in my counseling ministry right now.
08:26: I tell people like, Hey, go listen to my sermons from X number of months ago.
08:33: And it might be around the 30 minute mark or something, but he is going, Hey, now I can find exactly where, where I'm talking about.
08:41: Oh no.
08:42: Just from a pure resource perspective as well too.
08:46: It's so funny because about a year and a half ago, no longer than that, two and a half years ago, we were already a hundred or so episodes in.
08:53: And I was saying to people, Oh my gosh, even that's why I had to say previous episode, you, you, you do this weekly, sometimes twice a week, you have all these live videos, you upload them, but then they just kind of get lost.
09:04: And I just go, when did I say that? Have I covered that? Is that a thought I had, or did I talk about that? Right.
09:10: And I've said on this podcast, not only the one you said, but many times, you know, gosh, I wish I could remember.
09:16: I don't have the time to go back through 200 hours worth of audio and video to find that spot.
09:22: And then, you know, a few months later I'm at this conference and you're going, Oh, Hey, look what I'm doing.
09:26: And I just thought it was absolutely amazing.
09:29: What I want to do for those listening, we're going to talk you through it.
09:33: But for those watching on YouTube right now, you're gonna be able to see our screen share.
09:36: I want to show you what's going on here because it's, it's pretty amazing.
09:40: So I'm going to share this tab.
09:42: I'm at Let's Church right now.
09:44: Can you see that Ken? Because if you're seeing this tab, then everyone else would be seeing it on the video.
09:49: So for instance, I'm on a, you know, I can go up here to let's church.
09:54: Let's go back to the main page there.
09:56: Let's church.
09:57: Let's not church.
09:58: And if I go to channels, let's say, Oh, we got some friends on there.
10:01: We got a D a buddy of mine, alpha and omega ministries, obviously both friend of friend of ours, Dr.
10:07: James White.
10:08: So we go down here to dead men walking right now.
10:10: Let's say, and look at all my, all the YouTube videos that we have come right up.
10:14: I'm going to type in something like, uh, camping and say, okay, uh, when did I ever say or mentioned camping? Well, look at one of the more recent videos that came up.
10:24: Dr.
10:24: James White, the complete camping episode comes up under the media file.
10:28: And I think Ken, correct me if I'm wrong, because that is in the title or the byline, correct? Yeah.
10:33: That's in either the title or the description.
10:35: Yeah.
10:36: Right.
10:36: Title or description right there in the title.
10:38: And I'm saying, okay, that has a, that has an episode of camping, but I, I want to know, uh, when I even use that word, well, if I click over here on the left-hand side transcripts, well, lo and behold, would you look at this? Not only do I have a list of every time the word camping was used, because remember let's church transcribes all of the audio and video episodes, right? So let's say I want to go down here and I just want to say, uh, what's up with, okay.
11:06: Third one down.
11:07: We'll just pick one at random.
11:08: Deadman walking podcast.
11:09: What's up with Isaiah chapter six.
11:10: Those angels are crazy.
11:11: Yo, right.
11:12: Down below it, it says, oh, at four 11 and she goes, if we go camping, cause I need my heat.
11:19: Right.
11:19: So it's trans it's transcribing it.
11:21: If I click on that four 11 there, which I found amazing.
11:27: Um, it comes up right where I'm talking about.
11:31: And if you see on the right, it's transcribing it and it's highlighted where I say the word camping.
11:36: So it's highlighting where I say the word, so I can see it in text.
11:40: And then also it's bringing me right to that spot on the video where I said that word, which, um, I just think is absolutely amazing just for resources.
11:49: So, um, you know, let me stop sharing this for a little bit.
11:53: Ken, uh, what gave you that idea to be able to do that? Was that just something like, Hey, we're living in a time where AI can be utilized like that.
12:01: And, uh, I think this would be beneficial or was it something you kind of had to add to that? Like what's the idea behind that? Yeah.
12:09: Well, so like I said, just like really just being able to recall something like there are so many times I'll be talking with Laura and be like, ah, who, who said that? And when, but not actually be able to find a video.
12:23: Cause there's a lot of helpful content out there.
12:25: Um, you know, when I was talking with James White, he said we have over 2000 episodes of the dividing line, but they're completely inaccessible because they're not indexed.
12:36: Um, yeah.
12:37: Um, so how do you think this compares to stuff that's out there right now? Is this because I don't get really this accurate of a, of a search when I'm searching YouTube.
12:45: I know YouTube will transcribe some stuff.
12:48: I know, um, sometimes, uh, on a Google search, it will take me to close to the subject that I typed in, right? Like how do I screen record and stream yard? It might take me three minutes into a video, but it's, it's still not down to the word to where this is transcribing every single word, searching the word, and then taking you to it, uh, when you type it in.
13:12: So is there anything else out there that is comparable to this, or is this kind of ahead of the curve in the way of search? Um, I, I would say it's, it's probably on the leading edge.
13:23: And I say that because when I had first started working on this project, I was using a third party company for actually making these, uh, transcripts.
13:33: Um, but in the process of developing this, uh, open AI, uh, makers of chat GPT have released a free transcribing model, uh, that provided unprecedented accuracy and transcriptions.
13:47: And so that's what I'm using.
13:47: It's called open AI whisper.
13:49: And I'm running that on my own hardware and I'm, you know, it, they, they released at just the right time because I did the calculation recently for all the content that's on.
13:57: Let's church right now, uh, to, if I were to run that through the third party, I was using before who are very fairly priced.
14:06: I'll say that, um, I'd be looking at an $8,000 bill, um, as opposed to open AI comes along and releases this model at, you know, you know, frankly, just the right time to launch this thing.
14:19: And, uh, I, I was able to transcribe everything right.
14:23: So right now we call that the Providence.
14:26: Yeah.
14:26: Yeah, absolutely.
14:27: Well, and then combine that with some other advancements in bandwidth pricing and whatnot.
14:32: Um, it, it really is a providentially perfect time to, uh, to launch this platform.
14:38: Um, so right now there are, um, there is just over as of a few days ago, 500 days of transcribed content on what's church.
14:48: Wow.
14:48: So what are the overall applications for this? Then we talked about resources.
14:53: Uh, we talked about, like you said, personal search.
14:56: I've used it multiple times to go.
14:59: What did I talk about on this subject? Or, um, I've, I've looked at like, uh, like James white stuff, obviously, if we want to get into textual criticism or reform theology or any of that stuff, it's like, oh, I want to know when he was talking about this.
15:12: Um, so that's good.
15:13: So when you look into the future for let's church, what do you think are the applications? Like, who are you going for? Are you just right now? Are you still in that phase where you're looking for people to add content? Or are you eventually going to go, we want to offer this to churches.
15:25: We want to offer this to ministries.
15:26: Like what's the plan there? Have you thought about that at all? Well, yeah.
15:30: So, um, right now I'm trying to, uh, onboard primarily churches and other ministries as well.
15:35: Um, so, you know, like I, I'm looking to ramp this up rather quickly.
15:41: Um, I think it's going to be a very useful tool for even when people are taken out of context and, you know, you'll hear someone say, Hey, such and such, and somebody said this, that, or the other thing.
15:53: But then you'll be able to go back in context and see exactly what they were saying and why they were saying it and, you know, what passage of scripture they were quoting.
16:04: Um, yeah, no, that, yeah, no, that's so good.
16:07: Um, that takes me kind of to my next point, which you already kind of touched on, which was this all takes money.
16:14: Um, I mean, you're doing this, you're doing this, uh, you know, it takes a lot of labor and a lot of money.
16:19: Um, I would start to think that just the, the, the storage fees or, you know, server fees and things to be able to host all this video, much of it now in HD, you know, very memory hungry, uh, size wise.
16:34: Um, what are you doing there? You said it's a nonprofit.
16:38: Do you have partnerships, investments? Are you selling something? Like what's your structure there? Because I truly believe we need to support something like this.
16:46: Everyone else who sees this, you guys, this is how we build things and we build things better than what the world is building.
16:53: And, uh, Ken's doing that and he's doing it for the glory of God and he, and it's, and it's an awesome thing.
16:58: So like, how, how, how does this get paid for? I guess is what I'm saying.
17:03: Sure.
17:04: Yeah.
17:04: So, um, there is a donation page on, uh, on let's church where you can donate.
17:09: And, um, I, I have a handful of donations right now.
17:12: It's, um, it's mostly bootstrapped.
17:16: Um, and you know, Lord, Lord willing, it will be self-sustainable through donations.
17:22: One day, the, the way I'm really structuring this is, um, through a concept known as the Dorian principle, which is, um, Dorian is a coin, a Greek word for co-labor.
17:32: And I mean, the ministry financing is an entire podcast in and of itself.
17:36: I I'd love to get you connected with Conley Owens.
17:39: He wrote the book called the Dorian principle, just really talking about how should we fund ministries? Uh, should we be selling stuff or should we be co-laboring in the Lord together and trusting that God will provide? Um, so that that's really what I'm doing is, uh, you know, I I'm building it.
17:57: I'm walking out in faith and trusting that people will find it.
18:00: Uh, useful enough to want to donate and make the platform self-sustainable without having to go into ads or selling content behind a paywall or anything like that.
18:10: Yeah.
18:11: Okay.
18:11: Something that I will have, um, in the near term future, I am planning on having a financial transparency page.
18:18: I'll actually break down the server costs, storage costs, um, and all, all that stuff so that when people donate, they will have like a fairly clear idea of exactly what they're paying into.
18:30: Yeah.
18:30: I'm going to share this one more time and we're going to make sure we support you and make sure that people, uh, know where they can donate at.
18:38: How do you spell, uh, the Dorian principle? Because I believe I had him on the podcast.
18:43: Oh, really? Okay.
18:45: Yeah.
18:45: Um, D O R E A N.
18:50: Uh, now it's fine.
18:51: Yeah.
18:52: No, it might be right there, right under media.
18:54: So Connelly Owens, the Dorian principle.
18:59: I didn't even know that, but, uh, yeah, no, Connelly has been, uh, Connelly has been a really good friend.
19:04: Um, so look at that.
19:06: Let's church.
19:07: So was it again? I'm sitting here going, I know that sounds familiar.
19:10: And I think I know that name.
19:12: And I go, if there's only a way I could find out really quick, if he'd been on the podcast, so I can tell him and I go, well, we're sitting here with the guy from let's church.
19:19: Let's use let's church.
19:20: So I will say, so the way the model, the way the model transcribes Dorian, I I'm going to have to fix this, but, um, it spells it D O R I A N.
19:31: So that is, um, if you search for Dorian that way, then it'll probably pull up in the transcripts.
19:39: Yeah.
19:39: Um, so yeah, you know, got to make a, got to implement type of tolerant, uh, searching.
19:46: Yeah.
19:46: I mean, I mean, there's, I got to imagine with this type of stuff too.
19:49: And I'm sure you go through it all the time as a software engineer, there's always just tweaks and things that you're always fixing and changing and never ending job, right? Absolutely.
19:57: Yeah.
19:58: So there you go right there.
19:59: So even something you were talking about, it was very beneficial to, uh, search that.
20:03: And, um, that's how bad my memory is.
20:06: It was only a year and a half ago and I'm going, I think I had him on.
20:10: It's so, it's so, it's so bad.
20:12: I, I, when I first started this, I said, I'm going to remember every name and everything we promote and every person.
20:17: And then you get four years into it and a couple hundred, 300 episodes later.
20:22: And you're like, I think I had that person on.
20:24: Yeah.
20:24: We talked for an hour.
20:26: That was good.
20:27: But, uh, I'm going to make sure, uh, you're linked up here to your donate pages linked up because guys, if you're listening right now, you got to support, um, what Ken's doing.
20:37: You got to support guys like this.
20:38: Not only is it because I'm extremely flattered and honored to be one of the, uh, first, um, kind of people that he's brought onto that to be able to search that content.
20:48: But, um, it's a huge, huge resource.
20:51: I felt, geez, I felt like I just went Trump right there.
20:53: Huge, the huge resource for, um, for believers.
20:57: And, and I'm a firm believer in the fact that we need to build things, um, that are Christian base that, that are Christian in principle and moral and biblical.
21:06: And I think this is one of those things.
21:08: So we'll make sure we get that all linked up.
21:10: But, um, so let's church.
21:12: Let's not church guys.
21:13: Go check it out.
21:14: Go click on it.
21:15: Search the videos.
21:15: You're going to love it.
21:16: With that being said, I wanted to shift for the final few minutes we have here.
21:20: Uh, we've got a software engineer.
21:21: We got a self-proclaimed can I, can I call you a techie nerd? Is that, or is that derogatory? Or did I say that with honor? I got my skills very early on.
21:36: Yes.
21:36: Yeah.
21:37: So, uh, I'm always a little envious because my dad owned a computer wholesale business in the eighties and nineties when I grown up, I was always around computers, but I just, I knew just enough to get me in trouble, but not enough to fix anything.
21:47: Does that make sense? We had, we had some really good, some really good tech guys, uh, that I was best friends with.
21:54: So I kind of understand that world a little bit.
21:57: Uh, but I want to talk about AI a little bit because you're utilizing AI.
22:00: You're a believer.
22:01: There's this big thing going on right now with AI.
22:04: Like, dude, is it, is it something we should embrace as believers, as Christians? Is it something we reject? Like, what are your thoughts on it? I think I know what you're going to say.
22:13: And I think we're going to agree on it.
22:15: But when we look at AI technology, because I had a gentleman on two talking about like, who's writing the moral landscape for the AI? Like who's writing, like where, where's the AI's worldview coming from? I think it's more of a battle for that than it is just for the technology in and of itself.
22:31: But what are your thoughts on AI in like a nutshell? Sure.
22:34: Yeah.
22:34: I mean, so back in world worldview issues decide in who's training the AI aside.
22:40: If we just like back up and take a look at what AI is, it's a tool like any other, and a tool like any other can be used for nefarious purposes or it can be used for God glorifying purposes.
22:50: There you go.
22:50: So the thing that really has people freaked out about AI right now is like, you go to chat GPT and it feels like you're talking to a person, perhaps a very verbose person.
23:01: But what you have to remember is that you're talking to a mathematical model that predicts the next word in the sentence.
23:09: Yeah.
23:10: And that's all it really is.
23:12: So like, I've always said, AI, heavy emphasis on the A, right? Like it's, it's.
23:21: Artificial.
23:23: Yeah.
23:24: So, so you take the stance that I do as well, too, that these things are a tool.
23:28: I would argue they fall into, you know, any of these kind of sharp objects, I guess you would say that the Lord allows us to play with and says, treat correctly and with respect and in a biblical manner.
23:39: You know, I, from a health aspect, you'd put like a tobacco or alcohol into that category.
23:46: Don't abuse it.
23:47: You know, there's different doctrines for different people on whether to abstain completely or not.
23:51: I would say, you know, weapons and guns are another one of those things to where self defense is a good thing, but obviously it's a tool that can be a gun.
23:59: It can be used for nefarious reasons.
24:01: I look at AI in that same bucket of technology, just like the internet in general, right? There's a lot of horrible things on the internet, but there's a lot of God glorifying things on the internet too.
24:12: So it's how we use that tool.
24:13: So I look at AI that same way as well.
24:17: The only thing I'm kind of worried about is when we kind of, uh, when Pete, when, when companies or secular companies or nonbelievers are kind of writing, and I might be saying this technically incorrect, so you correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are a lot of stuff now, we're in this phase where we're calling it AI and it's really just prewritten code.
24:38: That's responding to, uh, certain things and it's not truly artificial intelligence in the way that we are dreaming of it 20 years from now to where it can actually kind of learn on its own.
24:49: And we've already seen this in algorithm, right? Like, uh, the way you search for something in Google can be put at a certain level or not shown at all, depending on who's writing that algorithm.
25:00: And I'm afraid one, we're referring to things that are AI in the really just still algorithms.
25:06: But two, when AI gets to a point to where it has to make moral decisions, my worry is more of where is that moral foundation coming from? Or where is it? Is it all mathematical? Is it all just coding? But if it's truly artificial intelligence, it's learning, right? It's kind of learning from its, from its own experiences, I guess you would say like, uh, so yeah, I guess like AI is not a thing.
25:36: It's, it's a collection of technologies, right? So if we're talking about chat GPT, we're talking about what's called a large language model and a large language models only job is to predict the next, uh, word in a sentence or in a body of text.
25:50: So when you start talking about things like moral decisions, there's no moral decision happening.
25:56: It's just generating words.
25:58: Um, there's, there's no real decisions happening at all.
26:03: Um, when you start talking about plugging different systems into each other, then you start to get into that territory of like, okay, now like decisions are being made if else.
26:13: Um, but like, like I said, that's, that's not actually making decisions.
26:23: That's, you know, it's, it feels like you're talking to a person, but you're talking to a mathematical model.
26:28: So, so yeah, I'm kind of thinking like my, my idea when I think of AI too, is let's say I have like self-driving cars, right? This was a big kind of argument we had a couple of years ago and you have some type of algorithm or AI model or whatever it is in that software that calculates, um, probability of safety or death from the passenger in a crash or probability to, um, you know, avoid a crash, whatever it is.
26:56: Let's say your car is going out of control.
26:59: The AI or the algorithm makes an instant calculation and you can either hit an old grandma pushing a stroller or a young woman to the right or the left.
27:09: That's the only two choices.
27:10: And the probability of survival, the passengers, the exact same, like what is making a choice? Because like when you're in a car, you make, you make splits.
27:19: They've done this with psychology.
27:20: You make split decisions on moral choices all the time on which way you don't even do it subconsciously, which one I'm going to turn to avoid this or not hit that.
27:30: I'm just wondering, is there going to be some type of in AI or algorithms that you program into software, um, that makes those decisions? Oh yeah.
27:39: We'd rather hit the 85 year old grandma.
27:41: She lived a longer life.
27:42: Take her out first instead of the young woman on the, on the right.
27:46: Like, I know these seem like crazy, uh, you know, but it could happen and they speak to something much larger.
27:54: So what are your thoughts when you're looking at that in AI? It totally could happen.
27:59: And, um, I mean, you know, traditionally speaking, just remembering back to my AI classes in university, um, the, the, the AI, like I'm going to be using some personifying adjectives here, even though it is completely artificial, but like it, it is going to be interested in defending itself.
28:21: So whatever will, uh, whatever provides the best outcome for itself.
28:27: So in this case, I guess the car or the software in the car, but of course it's us who's defines what good for the AI is.
28:36: Right.
28:36: That's what I mean.
28:37: Yeah.
28:37: So, yeah, you know, and those are, I like that.
28:40: I just, uh, you know, you were going to come on and talk about let's church and then I just throw a, Hey, answer the, uh, problems of AI for us and just throw it in your lap.
28:50: So I think for not knowing that question and not knowing that I was just going to ask you to explain all of AI and all of its problems, just a pretty good answer.
28:57: But, um, so yeah, let's wrap this up.
29:00: We're getting close to our half hour mark and, or maybe we're over that.
29:04: And we want to, um, I mean, I wanted to have you on one because I just think what you're doing is absolutely amazing.
29:10: You're a brother in the Lord.
29:11: You're building something.
29:12: Uh, you know, I own my own business.
29:14: It sounds like you're doing your entrepreneurial thing.
29:16: We got to support each other, especially if it's a great idea.
29:20: And it's always a great idea to me when I'm sitting around kind of, kind of like James White and going, I wish there was something that fixed this problem.
29:27: And then I run into you to go, Oh, I've had, I've thought of that and I've fixed it.
29:32: Not only fixed it, but made it better to where now it's efficient.
29:36: You're, you know, your, your searches is very quick.
29:40: It's accurate.
29:41: Um, and I've always said those who, you know, it used to be in the early to mid two thousands, whoever had data was King.
29:49: That's still true.
29:51: Now, whoever can search data accurately and efficiently is going to be the new King is like, yeah, we have the data, but now how do I use it? Search it.
30:01: You know what I mean? Dissect it.
30:02: You can have all these mounds of data, but if you can't access it quickly, efficiently and accurately, well then you're in trouble.
30:08: Let's church.
30:09: Let's not church.
30:10: Go check it out.
30:11: Guys does that.
30:12: And it's doing it mainly for Christian content, which is exciting because we get to say, we've got let's church.
30:19: What do you guys have over there? Uh, in your secular pagan world, not, not let's church.
30:24: We have that.
30:25: You have a five skippable and a five non-skippable ads coming up before you YouTube video just around the corner.
30:31: Oh, that's the most beautiful thing as well, too.
30:34: You go to this site right now and, and by the grace of God, if we, if, if you can get financing and donations and people can donate, let's keep it ad free.
30:41: Isn't it a beautiful thing when you're on a website and it's just completely ad free.
30:45: I mean, you can't even go to a mainstream news site.
30:48: You've got pop-ups and you've got, you know, banners and it's just all ads and we're just bombarded.
30:53: It's just such a beautiful site to go there.
30:55: It looks beautiful.
30:56: It works well.
30:57: I'm just, I'm very excited about what you've done on that site, Ken, and I'm a big supporter and anyone who's listening needs to go check out let's church.
31:05: Um, so let's give you the final word on the episode though, Ken.
31:08: So take us home.
31:10: Uh, what, what, what do you want to leave with the listeners about either let's church or just in general? Yeah, well, um, I'll say that this is only just the beginning for let's church.
31:20: There's a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon.
31:22: Um, additional search tools, uh, better organization and church search as well.
31:28: So if you're looking for a church, you'll be able to not only look for the churches, but also look for everything that they, uh, they've, uh, been preaching and be able to actually search their transcripts as well.
31:39: Um, like I said earlier, uh, financial transparency and, um, yeah, slow clap for you.
31:47: Do you know how many times I've went to a church website and their statement of faith is kind of shrouded in vagueness.
31:54: Uh, you know, their, their beliefs are like, eh, I'm not really sure.
31:58: And then they have like 200 episodes of their live streams.
32:01: And I go, oh my gosh, I don't have time to sit here and listen to, uh, 20 hours worth of someone preaching to find out where they stand theologically or what they're, you know? So now you're saying you could even, if the church has the video or the audio up, you're going to be able to basically search that down to the transcript and go, okay, where do they stand on baptism? Where do they stand on the Trinity? Where do they, right? Yeah.
32:23: Well, I'm thinking of it as, yeah.
32:25: Where do you stand on great juice? Now my brain, I'm thinking of it theologically, but I'm saying also for someone who's searching for a church and wants to know those things, or, you know, I mean, that's, that's, that's going to be cool too.
32:38: When you actually are able to have that on there.
32:41: And I would think just thinking outside the box here, um, maybe not outside the box.
32:46: Maybe you already thought of this is, you know, that could be into the church's budget as well to be able to be part of let's church when you're driving traffic there to, for new members to be able to search.
32:56: That's something where I think churches would want to donate, uh, or have a small monthly subscription to be able to be on a searchable site like let's church.
33:05: And there's tens of thousands of churches out there that, um, you know, might want to do that.
33:10: So, uh, you know, I think, I think you have a lot of different revenue streams here as well, too, which I'm excited about.
33:17: As long as we, you know, think outside the box, I don't ever want the day to be, well, it's a great idea.
33:25: It was beneficial to everyone.
33:26: Just didn't have the money to keep the doors open or couldn't grow it.
33:29: Um, because I think this is so needed in search that, like I said, anyone listening, make sure you go to let's church, play around with it, check it out.
33:36: And if you're so inclined, um, donate, I mean, heck we go spend $5 on a coffee at Starbucks.
33:43: Oh, I don't, but many people do, right.
33:45: Or whatever dumb thing, heck a value me up.
33:48: McDonald's is going to cost you $10 now.
33:50: And it's horrible food.
33:51: Take that $10, send it to him each month.
33:53: I'm sure every little bit helps, right? Yeah.
33:56: Well, and your donations are, uh, tax deductible.
33:59: So, um, Oh, $10 a month.
34:02: Give him $5,000.
34:03: Break this sucker off.
34:05: There you go.
34:06: Yeah.
34:06: Well, you gotta get past yourself into the next lower tax bracket.
34:09: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
34:11: That's true.
34:12: I, um, man, no, I, I just had a thought right now.
34:18: Um, Oh no, it escaped me again.
34:23: Hey, this is one of those fun episodes where I get, you remember? Okay.
34:27: No, I, I, yeah, I haven't.
34:29: Now this is actually important.
34:30: So, cause, um, I want the, I want less church, not only to be a platform where you go to support let's church itself for the sake of less church.
34:38: Um, I, I am looking to build features where you will be able to support the ministries that are on let's church itself.
34:45: So I've been, um, thinking about passive, uh, sort of like passive, um, streams.
34:53: Like say you set a budget of a hundred dollars a month.
34:56: Um, and let's say you give 10% of that to let's church.
35:01: And then the rest of it gets flipped to the ministries, each ministry, according to how much you watch them, stuff like that.
35:07: Yeah.
35:07: So that's a really good idea.
35:09: Yeah.
35:10: I, that I'm thinking, um, that, that, that was one of my original ideas, uh, is to be able to do that.
35:16: So I don't, like I was saying, not, not just for the sake of supporting let's church, but for the sake of supporting everyone who's on the platform as well.
35:25: Yeah, no, that's so good.
35:26: All right.
35:27: Let's wrap this up, Ken.
35:28: Thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
35:30: First time on a podcast.
35:31: You absolutely did great.
35:33: Uh, I loved it.
35:34: Good information.
35:35: We're big fans of let's church at deadman walking podcast.
35:38: Uh, I know I keep saying it, but I want to get it in listeners, heads, watchers, heads, go over there, check it out.
35:42: Let's that church is what it took me to, is that still, I know you got a million domains, but everything goes there.
35:48: Let's not church, right? Let's start church.
35:51: Let's church.tv.com.net.org.
35:54: Um, if anyone is interested in getting your church on there, you can feel free to reach out to me at Ken at let's start church.
36:01: And, uh, yeah.
36:03: Cool.
36:03: We're going to post all your information.
36:05: So when the podcast goes live, people can just click on it, email you get ahold of you, any, uh, social medias that you want to throw out there.
36:11: If you're on social media anywhere, if people want to follow.
36:14: Yeah.
36:14: We're on Facebook.
36:15: Just look for less church.
36:16: We're also on Twitter at, uh, let's underscore church.
36:19: Um, yeah, the other, yeah, I guess similar to your situation, uh, let's church was taken in 2015 or something with a zero post and an egg emoji, but, um, I said Twitter it's X.
36:36: I said Twitter earlier too.
36:38: I'm still getting in the hang of saying Twitter slash X, X, whatever it is.
36:42: But, um, all right, cool.
36:43: We'll put all those socials up too.
36:44: So people can follow guys.
36:45: Thanks so much for listening to another episode of dead men walking podcast.
36:49: There you have it.
36:49: Uh, another believer building something cool in the tech space, taking off people being added onto getting all kinds of searches.
36:57: I love doing episodes like this where we've got guys in a, in a space like that, that are doing things that are kind of unheard of for us believers and we need to go support them.
37:06: So, um, make sure you check out, uh, all the links below in this episode and, uh, give us a comment.
37:12: Uh, tell us your experience when you went to let's church.com or, and I'm sorry, let's not church and, uh, checked it out and saw how cool it is to play around with the transcripts and things like that.
37:21: Guys, we love you so much.
37:23: We thank you for listening to the show as always.
37:25: Remember the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoying forever.
37:29: God bless.
37:30: Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at dead men walking podcast for full video podcast episodes and clips, or email us at dead men walking podcast at gmail.com.