Black Churches Are Asking Bigger Questions About AI

Getting the church service online was one thing. Making sure the people could access it was another.

During the pandemic, pastors began asking Dr. Fallon Wilson about computers for their parishioners and internet access for their communities. The needs reached beyond Sunday worship. Technology had become part of the church’s responsibility to care for its people.

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“That opened the door for all types of digital equity activism and advocacy,” Wilson said.

Now, the 2026 Forward Religions Conference will bring Black faith, culture and technology into the same conversation. Scheduled for Nov. 13 through Nov. 15 in Washington, the gathering asks what it means to come home — and what Black communities can carry forward from the places that have sustained them.

‘Welcome Home’

Presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Center for the Study of African American Religious Life, the conference marks the center’s 10th anniversary under the theme “Welcome Home.”

Wilson, a featured speaker, is vice president of policy at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and co-founder of the Black Tech Futures Research Institute. Her work brings questions of access, civil rights and community needs into decisions about technology.

For her, the gathering offers something valuable: Time together for people who have been doing this work, often without opportunities to gather in one place. Some are computer scientists and theologians. Others are church leaders and technology practitioners. Wilson described them as thinkers she trusts to help Black communities build for the future.

“These are the people that I trust to build for us,” she said.

Wilson credited center director Dr. Erika Gault with the vision of bringing everyone together. Gault’s research helps explain why the gathering reaches beyond familiar church spaces.

“Black people are not contained to the Black Church,” Gault said in a 2024 University of Arizona report about her Connected Faith Survey. The study examined how Black Americans use digital spaces to practice faith and build community across religious traditions.

“Digital technology, particularly post-COVID, has made room for that diversity, explicitly so,” Gault said. That perspective gives the conference’s invitation to “come home” the room to include people whose spiritual communities also gather online.

Tech Meets Traditions and Values

At 1:15 p.m. Nov. 14, Wilson will introduce “We Have Come This Far By Tech: Black Religion, Home, and Techno-Possibility.” A multifaith public interest technology curriculum will debut.

Wilson described the curriculum as a 70- to 80-page introduction to machine learning, data and the questions they raise for people of faith. It draws on Christian, Islamic and African-centered traditions, giving participants several ways to approach the relationship between what they believe and the technologies they use.

For a congregation, those questions can be practical: What information are we putting into an AI system? Why are we using it? Who benefits? How do we explain those choices to the people we serve?

Wilson wants faith communities to bring their traditions and values to those decisions. The spiritual practices that guide people’s lives also contribute to how digital tools are built and used.

Her own experience with pastors during the pandemic showed how quickly the conversation could grow once technology became connected to an immediate need. Getting people connected opened opportunities for churches to advocate for their neighborhoods.

She said that work is now showing up in Black churches’ discussions about AI and data centers. But participation requires room to ask questions, including questions about what communities want to create for themselves.

“You will deconstruct data centers, but then what do you construct past that?” she asked.

The conference will put some possibilities on display through NEXT TECH LAB, featuring demonstrations of emerging projects. The broader program includes Yolanda Pierce, a leading scholar of African American religion and literature and founding director of the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life; the Rev. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia; and a closing conversation with singer-songwriter, musician and actor Saul Williams about religion and the film “Sinners.” Williams played Pastor Jedidiah Moore in the movie.

For Wilson, the opportunity is to connect the people asking questions about Black religious life and its link with technology and communities with people who have spent years working on them.

‘Outline How You Did It’

There is also work to do inside congregations already experimenting with AI. Wilson said pastors using it for research should have a policy and document the process— the prompts they enter, the information they supply and the reasons they use the tool.

“If you’re going to use it to synthesize literature about a text, outline how you did it,” she said.

Leaders also should be honest with parishioners about the use of AI and data centers and consider the environmental effects, she said. Keeping a record gives church leaders and parishioners a way to examine their choices and explain them.

A church might, for example, use AI to find grants for a reading program, summer activities or other community services when it cannot afford additional staff. Wilson wants the purpose made clear, along with the process.

That attention to centering people runs through Wilson’s work. Her commitment to technology grows alongside her commitment to the church and the communities it serves.

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“I am a church woman. I’m a church girl,” she said. “I love my church. I love my faith.”

The conference is free; registration is required. The museum’s event page lists the schedule, locations for events and panels and registration information

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