Big Questions, and a Few Answers, at the Intersection of AI and Religion

With Brian Green, PhD, Director of Technology Ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California.

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem, or Silicon Valley to Rome? It turns out they have a lot to do with each other. AI and religion intersect in many ways, but in this talk I will look mainly at how they connect ethically, anthropologically, theologically, and politically.

Ethically, there is much good to be done and evil to be avoided, and much of the ground is already being covered by secular thinkers: there are clear issues with bias, safety, transparency, privacy, employment, inequality, moral de-skilling, and so on, but society would benefit from a more Catholic perspective too. Anthropologically, AI raises for humanity the question of what makes us unique if our intelligence can be externalised and improved upon as AI does, as well as questions of the significance of our embodiment, finitude, our psychological strengths and weaknesses, etc. In theological terms there are movements that view AI as a potential god, or that God is an AI in charge of the computer “simulation” in which we dwell, or that we can create our own Heaven and New Earth through technology. At the same time AI can also help us express the image of God in us, if we use AI to fulfils God’s mission for humankind. Politically, AI also has the practical potential both to help solve many problems of efficiency and scarcity, while at the same time risking being a totalitarian dream-come-true, allowing the implementation a surveillance state, and promoting or suppressing religion, etc. 

This talk will get to some of our root questions having to do with the interaction of technology, particularly AI, and human psychology and culture, and how that connects to Christian and particularly Catholic religion.