We need to be very clear what AI is and what it isn’t. This is a machine. Machines do not think. Machines do not have qualia. They do not understand the redness of red. They do not experience emotion

John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford, The Diary of a CEO podcast, 4 June

Having machines write for us may be quicker, easier, slicker; but, by outsourcing our struggles to find the right words, we also outsource the essential human struggle known as thinking. . . It’s good to be reminded that all of us have something worth while to say, including things we cannot fully know until we set our minds to dance with language

Michael Hurley, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Cambridge, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 10 June

We need our humanities departments to help us think about the issues here and not leave it to the techies. . . Our humanities departments in universities are under very great pressure at the moment. We need philosophers. . . We need the Pope, and we need the right reverend Primate, to remind us of humanity

Lord Waldegrave, speaking in Archbishop of Canterbury’s debate on AI, House of Lords, 5 June

In a secular society, theatre is one of the few rituals left through which most of us experience the sacred. Yet a ritual only works when everybody commits to a collective act. And Britain has never been less religious than today

Kate Maltby, the Telegraph, 8 June

Given his outsized influence on our country — and in light of his problematic views on the most significant moral and practical challenge of our time — serious questions need to be asked about Sir Paul Marshall’s donations to faith groups, and specifically to the Church of England

Darrell Hannah, chair of Operation Noah, on the owner of GB News and The Spectator, quoted in The Guardian, 9 June

We invite readers’ contributions. Quotations have to be from the past few days (or quoted therein), and we need author, source, and date. Please send promptly to: quotes@churchtimes.co.uk