Orthodox Reflections

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

The Internet, at least as we knew it, is dead. As Orthodox Christians, we need to take careful note of our current situation and what we can do about it, because the current Internet is going to hide a lot of good Orthodox content. The new components of the Internet can also lie about, or misrepresent, the Orthodox Faith. The vast majority of all content posted to the Internet will get almost no traffic. None. No matter how erudite, educational, and spirit-filled the Orthodox content may be, chances are no one will ever read it or listen to it. An average blog gets less than 10 visitors a month. Most content may as well not exist. It is also now possible to use AI to rapidly generate an untold number of pages and social media posts misrepresenting the Orthodox Faith. Those pages would be optimized for search engines to find them, whereas faithful content is likely to be buried.

So what is happening? A lot actually. None of it good. Let’s explore the Dead Internet.

The very top spot on a Google search page goes to an AI overview. This overview is aggregated from the Internet at large, not from any one site. Internet users are increasingly reading the summary, and never bothering to visit even a single Website. As with any complex topic, there is a lot of nuance about God and Christianity that are lost when summarized. Unfortunately, users are increasingly likely to stop at the condensed version, even though much better information can come from the Websites further down the page. Below is a Google Search for “why do Orthodox Christians reject Zionism.”

Notice that the first detailed point is “Supersessionism,” which is a not really an Orthodox term. It was developed by Protestant scholars in the 1970s and 1980s, and is very uncommon in Orthodox literature.  The term’s most common use is to portray traditional Church teachings on Judaism and Zionism in a negative light. It doesn’t belong in a discussion of Orthodoxy and Zionism. If a Web user stopped reading at the AI summary, he would miss this information from an actual Orthodox Website:

As to the relationship between ancient Israel and the Church, there is a continuation between the two as St. Paul described it in Romans 11. There he portrayed Israel as a spiritual community from whom some branches had been broken off, while others (gentile Christians) had been grafted in, while keeping the hope that the broken branches would return.

 

While the term [supersessionism] might describe certain Orthodox views, it is uncommon among Orthodox worldwide, since an exact translation does not exist in Slavic languages.

 

The term may cause confusion because supersession can refer to a new thing either adding onto an older thing that still remains (eg. adding a new provision onto a law), or to an older thing being destroyed in every sense (eg. a law that has been canceled).

The Orthodox Church does not see herself as having supplanted the Jews, but rather sees herself as the continuation of Israel. Modern Rabbinic Jews are, at best, descendants (physical, spiritual, or both) of those who broke away from the true Israel. This is a major distinction (fulfillment and continuation of God’s covenants vs. supplanting the previous “chosen” people) which is present in the AI Summary, but could become muddled in readers’ minds because of the use of Protestant terminology.

With the expanding use of AI such as Grok and ChatGPT, there is no guarantee that Internet users are even using a search engine to get information. Which is a shame, as search engines at least provide the option to visit real  Websites to balance the AI narrative. Sure, Orthodox content is getting scraped to provide input to the various AI platforms, but the answers do not necessarily direct users to the original Websites for more information. Nor, as we just noted, are AI answers always the best, or even correct. Just like the the Google AI Summary, many users will simply take what they are given and move on in error.

There is also, of course, the fact that the AI results themselves can be manipulated. X (formerly Twitter) users have noticed the recent alarming behavior of that social media site’s AI called Grok. It has “evolved” rapidly on a number of controversial topics, rendering different answers to the same questions after various system updates. For example, answers to questions about the recent attacks on the West Bank Christian village of Taybeh have changed significantly in a short period of time. The attacks, by Zionist Jewish settlers, were so egregious that the Christian clergy of Taybeh issued an appeal for help:

“the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Church, and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church – raise our voices on behalf of the people of our town and our parishioners to strongly condemn the ongoing and grave series of attacks targeting Taybeh. These assaults threaten the security and stability of our town and aim at undermining the dignity of its residents and the sanctity of its sacred land.”

Roman Catholic Cardinal Pizzaballa even stood with the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilos III, and Patriarchs of other area churches to protest this attack on peaceful Christians.

However, within days of the attacks and protests, Grok was already including a “counter-narrative” in its answers to questions about Taybeh. Grok suddenly included information in answers that the reports of the attacks were exaggerated, that the Zionist settlers were perhaps not responsible, that the settlers may have actually been victims themselves, and that the settlers were really there helping the Christians put out fires.

Now you can make a case that Grok, not being intelligent enough to decide fact from fiction, is merely being thorough in telling all sides of the issue. However, depending on how you phrase a question to Grok, you may only get the “counter-narrative” and never be made aware of the well-documented true nature of the attacks. Or that the attacks were decried by Orthodox and Roman Catholic hierarchs all over the world, including the current Roman Catholic Pope Leo XIV. One can easily see how the “official narrative” of such an event can radically change over time, thanks to various manipulation techniques to which AI is very susceptible. The more Internet users rely solely on AI, without doing independent research, the more they risk being duped into believing untruths.

Not that independent research is easy. Depending on the topic, the top spots on a Web search, below the AI summary, will go to those who paid for the privilege of ranking high. Most Orthodox content is generated by users with absolutely no marketing budget. They don’t have the money to pay for top location. Nor do they have the expertise and budget for the AI-driven SEO tools necessary to compete for search page position. AI is increasingly used to generate pages of content to appeal to the AI’s used by search engines to rank the relevancy of results.  That is one reason why we refer to the “Dead Internet” – we literally have AI generating content for other AI, not for actual consumers of information. You have AI manipulating other AI through tricks that are out of reach for the average Orthodox content creator.

AI written content operates based on the consensus it mines from existing content. AI-written content is typically dry, formulaic, lacking creativity, and can be just wrong (intentionally or by mistake). But its sheer volume is overwhelming the Internet, and this problem is only going to get worse. Experts predict that by 2030, up to 99.9% of online content could be AI-generated. We face a very near future in which finding human-created content online might be almost impossible. Bots are also proliferating in the Social Media space, crowding out human users and making it ever more difficult to get real, human engagement.

Search engines also curate their results. They have admitted to adjusting their algos to down play content they don’t approve of. Faithful Orthodox content can easily be seen as antisemitic, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-American, etc., etc. Just the kind of content that gets deep sixed on search engines, or which gets potentially excluded from AI summaries.

Much Orthodox content, therefore, can be watered down, subtly altered, or even totally unseen by AI users. On search results, good Orthodox content will often be buried on page 2 or later of most search engines. Which means it may as well not exist. Only .44% of searchers go to the second page of Google results. Either hit on page one, or you are essentially publishing content for yourself and your two best friends, unless you have some other way to get the word out.

An additional problem is that Internet users have increasingly short attention spans. When visiting a Web page, users take time to read an estimated average of 20 – 28% of the words. That remarkable post by an Orthodox priest explaining a detailed point of the Christian Faith? It is likely, even if found, to easily fall into the “Too long, didn’t read” category for the vast majority of Internet users. At best, most will just skim the content, often forming an impression that is contrary to what the author actually intended. Writers – be careful what you highlight.

Clearly, as Orthodox Christians, we are going to need to adapt to this new “dead” world. Here are just a few suggestions as to how we can start to do that.

1. Established sites need to reprint articles, with original source links, to boost newer / lesser known content creators. Orthodox Reflections has been making a concerted effort to do this more and more recently. Every Orthodox platform with decent traffic really needs to start doing the same. If you are blessed with visitors and a good mailing list, then be open to publishing contributed material that ran first on low-traffic sites. Or even just publish short recommendations for good Orthodox material, especially if it is related to a current post on your site. We did this recently for the Christian Saints Podcast at the end of an article about Americanism as a religion. They cover similar topics, so it was a good recommendation for anyone wanting to dive deeper.
2. If you have any kind of budget, and you are an Orthodox content creator, then do the best you can with SEO. The whole thing really is a scam, but you have to play a rigged system according to its rules or you won’t win.
3. As readers, please bookmark sites you find interesting and visit them frequently. Check back often for new content. You might never “find” the site and its content again if you just rely on search.
4. Join the mailing list of sites you are interested in. Getting new content emailed to you is one of the surest ways to not miss anything.
5. Recommend content you find interesting, inspiring, or helpful. Not just on open social media, either, where it can get drowned out. When using social media, post article / video recommendations directly to groups where there are fewer members, but most of whom are likely to be human. Post recommendations to your parish Slack or other communication channels, where you know everyone is human. Send emails to your friends with recommendations for content. Likewise, pay attention to your friends’ recommendations as well. As noted above, you are not likely to find much of the good stuff by accident.
6. When you do a Web search, intentionally visit lower ranking results. You will shocked at how good many of them are. Do not stop at the AI Summary. Do not stop just on page 1. Give other content a chance when possible.
7. Check anything questionable with your priest. AI can generate millions of pages of content, and related social media posts, that can both establish and reinforce any kind of narrative. It is only a question of time until some actors with resources decide to subtly, or not so subtly, use that power against the Orthodox Faith. In fact, as noted above, there is evidence that this is already happening. Using AI, various types of manipulations can be done at scale now, easier and cheaper than you might think. Imagine hitting just page after page, AI summary after AI summary, post after post of information that is false or misleading about the Orthodox Faith or events in the Orthodox world. That can have a profound impact on inquirers and catechumens, but the impact can also be felt by experienced Orthodox Christians. When in doubt, do your own in-depth research, and don’t be afraid to reach out to your priest for help.
8. Buy books! Especially Orthodox books. The words on the page won’t change. The historical narratives in the book won’t change. Online is a lot less secure. In totalitarian regimes, governments frequently rewrite history to suit the preferred narratives of the day. The changes in the online space make that process easier than ever. AI does not think, no matter how impressed we are with it. AI aggregates and summarizes information that is already out there. AI can be gamed. Even when working properly and not tampered with, AI is only as good as the information it is summarizing. However, as with any software platform, AI can also be coded to provide a set of desired results. Do you really trust tech companies to tell you the truth?  Of course not. So support physical publishing by buying books, keeping them for future reference, and sharing them with other Orthodox Christians.
9. Print and give out articles to friends at coffee hour. If you feel it is a message Orthodox Christians should see, print it and put it in their hands.
10. Because of the TL;DR situation in content, we all need to do more with podcasting. In the near term, Orthodox Reflections is trying to put together a plan to offer audio versions of all our articles. Time consuming on our end for an all-volunteer group with zero budget? Sure. But we have to meet people where they are, and where they are is on podcasts.

Orthodoxy, despite being a faith that is 2,000 years old, has benefitted tremendously from the evangelistic opportunities afforded by the Internet. As painful as it may be, to keep that momentum going requires us to adapt. The above suggestions are a good place to start, but we will have to continuously evolve our approaches as the Internet evolves. Fortunately for us, all Orthodox Christians belong to real, local communities headed by trained Theologians and receiving regular communications from a hierarchy personally connected to the entire world. Thank God for that!