It seems artificial Intelligence (AI) has touched or is in the process of impacting most everything in our lives these days, from medical procedures to note-taking, from investing to information gathering, and more. As I’m writing, I think of the Scripture in Luke 16:8, ‘For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.’ (NIV) Missionally, it behooves us to consider how technological innovation can assist us in reaching our world for Christ. We need to be shrewd and wise in applying technology to accomplishing foundational missional work, such as Bible translation.
When AI is discussed in the context of Bible translation, the words ‘accelerate’ or ‘speed’ are typically used to qualify the main reason why AI might be employed in the task. Bible translation is both an exhilarating and fulfilling endeavor, and can also be time-consuming and tedious. Accuracy and fidelity between the translation and original require a high degree of iteration in the overall process. This usually translates to a slow, plodding process. Use of AI in Bible translation can help with this. Yet we don’t often hear people ask, ‘Are you using AI to increase the naturalness of the translation or its accuracy?’
‘Bible translation is both an exhilarating and fulfilling endeavor, and can also be time-consuming and tedious-the use of AI in Bible translation can help with this.’
ProgressBible reports that as of June 2025, 2,660 languages—and the millions of people that speak them—have inadequate access to Scripture, and that an additional 686 ethnolinguistic groups have no Scripture, and no work in progress to produce it. Whether or not you believe that universal access to Scripture hastens the Lord’s return (2 Peter 3:12), our shared desire to see lives transformed by the living (1 Peter 1:23) and active word of God (Isaiah 55:10–11), and to see the global church grow in knowledge and maturity, should compel us to do all we can to make Scripture available in a timely way to those still without adequate access to it.
Yet our current successes in the use of AI in Bible translation relate as much to greater accuracy and naturalness in translation as they do to a speedy delivery of the product. Teams report, surprisingly, that what they see is greater naturalness of receptor language use than accuracy in the output when generative AI is employed in drafting. But that’s not the final story, either. While naturalness of receptor language translation is showing good results (when a well-done source text is utilized in the process), AI is also being used with a high degree of success to significantly increase accuracy by assisting Translation Consultants with augmented tools to check the fidelity of translated Scriptures against the original and other highly trustworthy translations. Our opinion is that this aspect of AI use—to enable and bring greater efficiency to the characteristically slow process of checking translations—will only increase and expand, and, in turn, will improve and accelerate the checking process overall.
AI is also being used to assist community, mother-tongue Bible translation teams. One very significant and impactful way is through AI-generated Bible drafting. Using portions of Scripture previously translated by longstanding, well-proven methods, a program is used which learns the language patterns and lexicon from the translated portions and generates a draft translation of as yet untranslated material. The translation team then has the option of using the machine-generated translation as a reference text to create a first draft, or, they may choose to accept the machine-generated translation as a first draft, usually with some corrections. This method has been used with great success when a whole New Testament translation is available and can be used to produce large portions of an as-yet untranslated Old Testament. Additionally, AI is being employed to give translation teams greater access to translation resources, explore Bible background, and get answers to common (and not-so-common) translation questions.
Oral Bible Translation (OBT) is a relatively new and rapidly growing area of Bible translation. Translations of the original are produced orally for oral-oriented societies. Editing recorded translations brings a greater workload on translation teams due to the fact that any changes require a new recording. AI is offering the potential for changing this situation, and thus, drastically shortening the process, through a process known as ‘AI in-filling’ where orally translated audio is inserted into an audio recording.
Some important questions we are asking when using AI to assist in Bible translation are: What do we gain? And what do we lose? Bible translation is a sacred task. Some are asking, Should this task of generating draft translations be relegated to a machine? Does the use of AI in Bible translation reduce the significant impact— internalization and application—that Scripture has on the teams working so hard to translate it? Does our desire to help facilitate the translation of Scripture more quickly by using AI tools serve to short-cut the impact those Scriptures can have on those working most closely with them? These are important questions which we are continually asking and for which we are regularly seeking answers.
Our efforts should help us better address ways in which we can collaborate with communities to facilitate spiritual transformation, growth in Christ, and help the emerging church grow and mature.
Ultimately, efforts in the use of AI in Bible translation are not only about saving time or money or getting the product out faster. Our efforts should help us better address ways in which we can collaborate with communities to facilitate spiritual transformation, growth in Christ, and help the emerging church grow and mature. AI is not an actor. We are the actors. AI is a tool, and when used, we say, there is always ‘a human in the loop’ or better, ‘there is often these days a machine in the loop’. Those we work with and serve should be primary in our considerations about how we can best serve and work alongside communities to bring abundance of life through the living and active and transforming word of God.