General handbook update

[sbradshaw]

The decisions on what features to add and how to make them work are made a few levels above the developers.

This is true in general, but more so when it comes to AI-related features and content. Of course, ecclesiastical leaders don't have time to make every decision about every detail of every app – Church employees are given some autonomy to work within their stewardship, according to their role. But so far the Church has been very careful and deliberate with AI, and there's an established approval process before AI features can be made available on official Church channels. Elder Gong spoke a little bit about this in a talk he gave a couple of weeks ago, at an AI-related conference held in the Church Office Building: Elder Gerrit W. Gong: Discipleship in an Age of Artificial Intelligence

[ambldsorg]

And do you think that most people would take the time to go into settings to turn things on or off? I think very few users would know about the Search Assistant if it were buried in settings.

I get notified all the time by Microsoft Teams and Azure DevOps about the new features that exist that I might want to enable. I don't have to look for them, they tell me about them. Then I decide if I want them or not. It's not such a stretch to think that Church "software" could work in the same way.

[dch24]

Added my feedback through the official channel.

I'm also supportive of the respectful chat here. The "AI Search" button shows up in the library app and website in a way that's forcing it on me.

I feel hurt how it disrupts thoughtful reading.

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