October 21, 2025 • 10 mins
Jeff Burningham, author of The Last Book Written by a Human: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI, returns to talk with Kevin about faith in the era of algorithms. How will AI reshape belief, spirituality, and the search for meaning? Can technology deepen empathy and inclusion, or will it fracture communities of faith? A conversation about divinity, data, and the soul in a wired world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
There's so much talk these days about artificial intelligence and
the ways in which artificial intelligence, and some say is
becoming its own religion if you listen to some of
the tech Silicon Valley experts, or worse, the ones and
the Chinese Communist Party. But how will artificial intelligence change religion?
(00:30):
How will it change the biggest questions that we ask
about how this universe even got started? Was it a
big bang? Was it something more? Was it a big collapse?
And how will it change the way we worship God?
Hello Future, It's me keV and this is a dispatch
from the Digital Frontier. The year is twenty twenty five.
(00:53):
The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Surrilli, founder
of MTF dot TVs Meet the Future platform. My guest
Day has a great new book out. It's called The
Last Book Written by a Human Becoming Wise in the
Age of AI. He is chairman of Peak Capital Partners.
Jeff Birningham. Jeff, You've got a chapter in your book
(01:14):
that tackles this very very big issue of how AI
is going to change religion? So how is it going
to change religion?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, let me say two things about that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
If I could Number one, when I lost the governor's
race here in Utah into the summer of twenty twenty,
into the pandemic summer of twenty twenty, I had space
and time for the first time in my adult life.
And I've been an adjunct professor to thousands of entrepreneurial
students at BYU down the road for me, and I've
(01:44):
often told them that with space and time, anything can
be created. I go back into the venture work that
I had missed while I was running a statewide campaign
for eighteen months, and AI obviously immediately stuck out. I've
made several dozen and investments in AI companies. However, what
struck me much more about this technology was the way
(02:06):
that it would help humans face and understand these exostential questions.
Who am I, what is really going on here? And
what is different between my intelligence and the intelligence that
this machine is producing. So that's the first big, high
level idea. This will cause what I believe is a
(02:29):
transformation for mankind, for individuals, and then we will evolve
our institutions, the one of which is religion. In the
chapter about reforming religion, I pose one critical question. I
think it's the question that my faith tradition as a Mormon,
a Latter day Saint Christian.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's how I grew up.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That my faith tradition and all faith traditions will have
to tackle which is in an age of highly intelligent machines,
what special belief or practice should really stand in the
way human community and connection? See I believe that the
(03:10):
purpose of religion is human community and connection with themselves.
And I would say, with the divine, which is human,
which is human, what special belief or practice should get
in the way of that? When our kids are spending
more and more time with their digital devices, when we
it's hard to get people together in the same room.
(03:31):
I hope that religions will realize and go back to
their purpose, which was to bring people together in order
to commune with the divine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
In your new book, you write, the future belongs to
faith traditions that can evolve while maintaining their essential purpose
in an age when artificial intelligence threatens to further separate
us from each other. The future of our spiritual practices
isn't about abandoning tradition, but returning to what makes religion
so transformative in the first place, which is helping humans
(04:01):
remember their divinity and connecting to each other in love.
But then you write earlier in the book, and I
love this part. I'm just gonna read from it, you say,
the dance between remembering and forgetting takes on new significance
in the age of AI. Machines never forgets. They can
(04:22):
maintain perfect recall of every piece of data they consume.
This presents both opportunities and dangers for us, while our
forgetfulness serves a divine purpose, enabling growth through rediscovery. AI's
perfect memory could enhance our ability to remember what you
(04:44):
are saying, which is it really is striking, which is
Sometimes it's good to forget. But if we now have
this technology where everything's in recall and it's an extension
of our brain, it's almost like a storage container of
our rain. Is that only going to make us less
faithful to the good of humanity?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Jeff, Well, you and I both know just from lived experience,
and every listener here can recall. There's power in naivete.
There's power in forgetting. When you don't know how hard
it is to run for governor, you do it. When
you don't know how hard it is to launch a podcast, Kevin,
you do it. Yes, when you don't know how painful
(05:27):
love can be. Real, honest, messy, human, beautiful love. You
throw your heart out there and you go for it.
These are things that AI can't replicate. It doesn't understand
the pain of loss like we do, the grief of
losing someone you love. And in this forgetting, there's a
(05:50):
powerful motive to continue to seize the moment, to experience
new things, to grow, to transform, and to learn. AI obviously,
as a machine, depending on its parameters, doesn't have to
forget anything. Now that can be a powerful augmentation, let's say,
in some ways to humanity. I'm sure that you and
(06:11):
I both use AI on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
To remember certain facts or to.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Look at data and pick out patterns that are too
too hard for the human mind to grasp and massive
data sets. So there is power in forgetting. There's also
power in remembering. And my belief, my bet on the
next decade is on a massive renaissance and human consciousness,
(06:38):
a remembering, you could say, a remembering of who we are,
what really is, and how we can enhance that or
encourage that via the wise use of AI.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
But Jeff, I didn't know I was going to do this,
but I'm gonna do it right now. I'm on CHATCHYPT,
I've got CHATCHYPT opened, and I'm just gonna put this in,
did Jesus rise from the death? Let's see what comes back?
I believed, by the way, So this is what But
because this gets to your entire question about about and
the themes that you're that you're writing. So it gives
me this whole it's still it's still going. It gives
me like a one page memo. But the first sentence
(07:12):
that just came back, and I, honestly, folks, I did
not know I was gonna do this quote. This is
according to chat Ept, whether Jesus rose from the dead
depends on the lens through which you approach the question.
So right there, I have a million questions, which is
who programmed chat ept or what data set did chat
(07:33):
GPT look at in order to have that be the
first sentence. And it has so many implications. If we
as a society are saying trust AI, trust AI to
find information to do information, this has significant significant if
(07:54):
we keep going to AI, these questions, these big questions
that we are asking, these existential questions that we are asking,
are very consequential.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Jeff. Yeah, Well, the answers out aren't found in the machine, Kevin,
Like the answers aren't found in the machine, the answers
are found in the human heart. So I believe that
the reflection of AI will cause pain in humanity. Unfortunately,
pain is what we usually need to transform and evolve,
(08:27):
and through that transformation evolution, we will realize that the answers,
what we're searching for.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Validation, etc. Is not outside of us.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Everything that we as humans or individuals or as a
collective humanity have been searching for is already inside of us.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
See.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I think that AI will cause a lot of people
to go inside themselves in a deeper way than they
have you know, potentially ever, and that can be powerful
because it's when we go inside, when we can feel
the stillness. When we come back to ourselves, we're able
to show up in the world, in our being, in presence.
(09:14):
And it's that presence, that being that can spark truth,
lead to uh evolution.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That creates us.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Creativity is what I creativity create art, like all of
these things.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
This is the first book that I've that I've read,
and it's by Jeff Burningham or guest chairman of Peak
Capital Partners. The first book I've read where it's it's not.
It's a very Ryan Holiday esque vibe to what you're writing,
and you're asking very human questions and really big questions,
and not just hey, guys, gonna take your job or
how do you surpise you're in the economy. You're actually
(09:49):
asking how do we as as people engage with this
new instrument. Thank you so much for coming on. Hello Future.
Jeff Burningham, chairman of Peak Capital Partners and author of
this awesome new book, available wherever you can get your books.
The last book written by a human becoming wise within
the age of AI. I just seem to become wise.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Folks, I see that. Thanks Kevin, It's going to be
with you.
There's so much talk these days about artificial intelligence and
the ways in which artificial intelligence, and some say is
becoming its own religion if you listen to some of
the tech Silicon Valley experts, or worse, the ones and
the Chinese Communist Party. But how will artificial intelligence change religion?
(00:30):
How will it change the biggest questions that we ask
about how this universe even got started? Was it a
big bang? Was it something more? Was it a big collapse?
And how will it change the way we worship God?
Hello Future, It's me keV and this is a dispatch
from the Digital Frontier. The year is twenty twenty five.
(00:53):
The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Surrilli, founder
of MTF dot TVs Meet the Future platform. My guest
Day has a great new book out. It's called The
Last Book Written by a Human Becoming Wise in the
Age of AI. He is chairman of Peak Capital Partners.
Jeff Birningham. Jeff, You've got a chapter in your book
(01:14):
that tackles this very very big issue of how AI
is going to change religion? So how is it going
to change religion?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, let me say two things about that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
If I could Number one, when I lost the governor's
race here in Utah into the summer of twenty twenty,
into the pandemic summer of twenty twenty, I had space
and time for the first time in my adult life.
And I've been an adjunct professor to thousands of entrepreneurial
students at BYU down the road for me, and I've
(01:44):
often told them that with space and time, anything can
be created. I go back into the venture work that
I had missed while I was running a statewide campaign
for eighteen months, and AI obviously immediately stuck out. I've
made several dozen and investments in AI companies. However, what
struck me much more about this technology was the way
(02:06):
that it would help humans face and understand these exostential questions.
Who am I, what is really going on here? And
what is different between my intelligence and the intelligence that
this machine is producing. So that's the first big, high
level idea. This will cause what I believe is a
(02:29):
transformation for mankind, for individuals, and then we will evolve
our institutions, the one of which is religion. In the
chapter about reforming religion, I pose one critical question. I
think it's the question that my faith tradition as a Mormon,
a Latter day Saint Christian.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's how I grew up.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
That my faith tradition and all faith traditions will have
to tackle which is in an age of highly intelligent machines,
what special belief or practice should really stand in the
way human community and connection? See I believe that the
(03:10):
purpose of religion is human community and connection with themselves.
And I would say, with the divine, which is human,
which is human, what special belief or practice should get
in the way of that? When our kids are spending
more and more time with their digital devices, when we
it's hard to get people together in the same room.
(03:31):
I hope that religions will realize and go back to
their purpose, which was to bring people together in order
to commune with the divine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
In your new book, you write, the future belongs to
faith traditions that can evolve while maintaining their essential purpose
in an age when artificial intelligence threatens to further separate
us from each other. The future of our spiritual practices
isn't about abandoning tradition, but returning to what makes religion
so transformative in the first place, which is helping humans
(04:01):
remember their divinity and connecting to each other in love.
But then you write earlier in the book, and I
love this part. I'm just gonna read from it, you say,
the dance between remembering and forgetting takes on new significance
in the age of AI. Machines never forgets. They can
(04:22):
maintain perfect recall of every piece of data they consume.
This presents both opportunities and dangers for us, while our
forgetfulness serves a divine purpose, enabling growth through rediscovery. AI's
perfect memory could enhance our ability to remember what you
(04:44):
are saying, which is it really is striking, which is
Sometimes it's good to forget. But if we now have
this technology where everything's in recall and it's an extension
of our brain, it's almost like a storage container of
our rain. Is that only going to make us less
faithful to the good of humanity?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Jeff, Well, you and I both know just from lived experience,
and every listener here can recall. There's power in naivete.
There's power in forgetting. When you don't know how hard
it is to run for governor, you do it. When
you don't know how hard it is to launch a podcast, Kevin,
you do it. Yes, when you don't know how painful
(05:27):
love can be. Real, honest, messy, human, beautiful love. You
throw your heart out there and you go for it.
These are things that AI can't replicate. It doesn't understand
the pain of loss like we do, the grief of
losing someone you love. And in this forgetting, there's a
(05:50):
powerful motive to continue to seize the moment, to experience
new things, to grow, to transform, and to learn. AI obviously,
as a machine, depending on its parameters, doesn't have to
forget anything. Now that can be a powerful augmentation, let's say,
in some ways to humanity. I'm sure that you and
(06:11):
I both use AI on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
To remember certain facts or to.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Look at data and pick out patterns that are too
too hard for the human mind to grasp and massive
data sets. So there is power in forgetting. There's also
power in remembering. And my belief, my bet on the
next decade is on a massive renaissance and human consciousness,
(06:38):
a remembering, you could say, a remembering of who we are,
what really is, and how we can enhance that or
encourage that via the wise use of AI.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
But Jeff, I didn't know I was going to do this,
but I'm gonna do it right now. I'm on CHATCHYPT,
I've got CHATCHYPT opened, and I'm just gonna put this in,
did Jesus rise from the death? Let's see what comes back?
I believed, by the way, So this is what But
because this gets to your entire question about about and
the themes that you're that you're writing. So it gives
me this whole it's still it's still going. It gives
me like a one page memo. But the first sentence
(07:12):
that just came back, and I, honestly, folks, I did
not know I was gonna do this quote. This is
according to chat Ept, whether Jesus rose from the dead
depends on the lens through which you approach the question.
So right there, I have a million questions, which is
who programmed chat ept or what data set did chat
(07:33):
GPT look at in order to have that be the
first sentence. And it has so many implications. If we
as a society are saying trust AI, trust AI to
find information to do information, this has significant significant if
(07:54):
we keep going to AI, these questions, these big questions
that we are asking, these existential questions that we are asking,
are very consequential.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Jeff. Yeah, Well, the answers out aren't found in the machine, Kevin,
Like the answers aren't found in the machine, the answers
are found in the human heart. So I believe that
the reflection of AI will cause pain in humanity. Unfortunately,
pain is what we usually need to transform and evolve,
(08:27):
and through that transformation evolution, we will realize that the answers,
what we're searching for.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Validation, etc. Is not outside of us.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Everything that we as humans or individuals or as a
collective humanity have been searching for is already inside of us.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
See.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I think that AI will cause a lot of people
to go inside themselves in a deeper way than they
have you know, potentially ever, and that can be powerful
because it's when we go inside, when we can feel
the stillness. When we come back to ourselves, we're able
to show up in the world, in our being, in presence.
(09:14):
And it's that presence, that being that can spark truth,
lead to uh evolution.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That creates us.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Creativity is what I creativity create art, like all of
these things.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
This is the first book that I've that I've read,
and it's by Jeff Burningham or guest chairman of Peak
Capital Partners. The first book I've read where it's it's not.
It's a very Ryan Holiday esque vibe to what you're writing,
and you're asking very human questions and really big questions,
and not just hey, guys, gonna take your job or
how do you surpise you're in the economy. You're actually
(09:49):
asking how do we as as people engage with this
new instrument. Thank you so much for coming on. Hello Future.
Jeff Burningham, chairman of Peak Capital Partners and author of
this awesome new book, available wherever you can get your books.
The last book written by a human becoming wise within
the age of AI. I just seem to become wise.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Folks, I see that. Thanks Kevin, It's going to be
with you.
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