Benanti is not the only one exploring the intersection of technology and spirituality. Increasingly, religious communities around the world are engaging with the religious, ethical, and moral implications of AI.
AI can help you write a sermon or query a religious text or offer answers to existential questions, but it can also prompt religious communities to wrestle with questions about ethics, morality, consciousness, and data.
This week, we’re diving into the issues and conversations that are emerging at the frontier of technology, spirituality, and the future of the internet.
//
“If at some point AI systems become conscious, they’ll also be within the moral circle, and it will matter how we treat them.”
//
//Religious leaders are weighing in
AI is driving a response from religious leaders.
Catholicism: Last week, the Pope warned against the “perverse dangers” of AI and called for greater regulation. A deepfake victim himself, the Pope pointed out that algorithms are “not neutral,” cautioned against the risks of AI-generated fake news, expressed concern about ideological echo chambers, and advocated for people to adopt a “spiritual way of viewing reality.”
Islam: Some Muslim leaders are exploring how AI squares with Islamic law and principles in the Quran. Two Pakistani scholars won a grant from Meta in 2020 to study how the ethical and legal principles of Islam can be used to regulate AI in Muslim countries. “There’s a lack of representation in AI for the two billion people who profess these beliefs,” Dr. Junaid Qadir told WIRED. The researchers are exploring the tension between the Islamic concept of Falah, or spiritual salvation and wellbeing, and the profit-driven motivations of the companies using algorithms to make decisions with moral dimensions (like what a self-driving car should do if faced with the choice to crash into pedestrians or kill the car’s driver instead).
Judaism: There’s a long history of Jewish technologists and researchers contributing to the development of AI with companies. While some rabbis are turning to AI to help develop sermons, ultra-Orthodox rabbis in New York published a proclamation against the use of AI in their communities. One Jewish academic wrote a paper on the Jewish perspective on AI regulation and cautioned against granting moral personhood to robots.
Hinduism & Buddhism: In the Hindu tradition where automated worship, like special pots that drip water continuously for Hindu bathing rituals, is more common, leaders are debating whether automated, AI-powered religion is a sign of a promising future or “the apocalypse.” Automated worship also exists in Buddhism, and some are worried that as robots take over the care of deities, practitioners will have little reason to continue visiting temples.
New Age spirituality: Last week Deepak Chopra, a leader in the New Age spiritual movement, wrote an article for Fast Company offering specific instructions for how to “make AI your guru.”
//Grappling with complex issues
There is a lot at stake when fast-moving technology meets millennia-old spirituality. Here’s a sampling of the issues religious leaders and technologists are facing:
The blurry lines between human, machine, and deity: As our technology becomes more conversational, it’s easy to ascribe human or deity-like characteristics to an algorithm. AI chatbots can feel like conversational oracles, creating a sense of intimacy with a higher power or spiritual access with a religious leader.
Exploring the moral responsibility to conscious beings: The rise of AI has prompted questions about the definitions and limits of consciousness. Cognitive scientist David Chalmers has been exploring this question: “If at some point AI systems become conscious, they’ll also be within the moral circle, and it will matter how we treat them.”
Compatibility with religious values and ethics: How AI might be compatible with religious values and ethics is an active question for many. The Pope has called for regulations on AI because he worries that “algorithms must not be allowed to determine how we understand human rights, to set aside the essential human values of compassion, mercy, and forgiveness, or to eliminate the possibility of an individual changing and leaving his or her past behind.”
The rise of religious robots: In India, robots designed to perform acts of worship have raised questions about the use of AI in devotion and Hindu worship, and if the use of AI is blasphemous.
Exacerbating societal problems: For religious followers who feel called to care for the poor and address societal problems, AI could make matters worse. Friar Benanti expressed concern that the training of AI algorithms by underpaid workers amounted to a form of extraction of the global south’s cognitive resources.
//The intermingling of technology, religion, & ethics
The culture surrounding Silicon Valley’s tech companies has a reputation for being secular. While some claim they’re building responsible AI and ethical tech, a recent New York Times article by Linda Kinstler suggested that there isn’t a shared understanding of what those ethics actually were.
The spiritual or moral underpinnings of ethics could look quite different based on religious doctrine or worldview, and yet ethics are often treated as obvious, universal, and untethered to spiritual or religious roots.
Kinstler writes that our understanding of who we are is intertwined with our data online—data we no longer own or control. “When we gaze at our screens, we also connect with our memories, beliefs and desires. Our social media profiles log where we live, whom we love, what we lack and what we want to happen when we die. Artificial intelligence can do far more—it can mimic our voices, writings and thoughts.”
The complex issues and thorny questions at the intersection of technology, religion, and ethics could be uncomfortable for technologists and religious communities alike. But by wrestling with them, we might debunk the idea that technology is a neutral space devoid of moral judgments and spiritual implications. Such explorations could usher in a deeper understanding of the ways our worldview, morals, and beliefs are reflected in our relationship with technology and its relationship with us.
We’d love to hear from you. How does AI influence your spiritual journey or religious practices? What do you see as the biggest questions or insights at the intersection of AI and spirituality?
Project Liberty news
// Project Liberty founder and Executive Chairman, Frank McCourt, joined Bloomberg Radio’s Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney last week to speak on the importance of fixing big tech. Watch here.
Other notable headlines
// 🚫 Meta announced last week it will block strangers from sending direct messages to teens on Instagram and Facebook, according to an article in Ars Technica.
// 🐁 When a photographer trained rats to take selfies, it revealed something about our own relationship to social media, according to an article in The New York Times.
// 👤 Generative AI tools are being used in harassment campaigns like the recent deepfakes of Taylor Swift. An article in Platformer by Casey Newton describes how they're a warning.
// 🏴☠️ An article in The New York Times explored the rise of “obituary pirates” who capitalize on the social media searches around a recent tragedy and flood the internet with disinformation.
// 🇮🇳 An article in Rest of the World uncovered how a data collection app is becoming a key piece of campaigning technology for India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
// 🏛 This week, top tech executives will testify in front of Congress why child sex images are booming online, according to an article in The Washington Post.
// 🤖 The Biden administration is invoking the Defense Production Act to require AI companies to inform the US government when they start training AI algorithms, according to an article in WIRED.
// 📺 According to an article in The Atlantic, researchers just completed the most comprehensive analysis of YouTube to date. With 14 billion videos, it is far more than a platform: it’s critical infrastructure for the internet.
Partner news & opportunities
// Metagov seminar series: responsibilities in governing AI
January 31, February 7, February 14, & February 21 from 12-1pm ET
On and Off Responsibilities in Governing AI is a 4-week seminar series by Metagov and Responsible AI Institute to explore governance methods, models, and innovations initially developed to govern online and offline resources and structures. Learn more.
// Webinar: how social media is designed to radicalize users
February 2 at 1pm ET
Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media is hosting an online event to hear experts in national security, technology, and democracy discuss the effect of social media on domestic and foreign extremism, how the algorithms are designed to radicalize users, and what solutions are necessary to protect our democracy. Register here.
// Virtual event: fine tuning large language models
February 8 at 9am ET
Join Project Liberty and Ashoka for a webinar exploring the social entrepreneurs developing and fine tuning Large Language Models in "low resources languages" (i.e. not English) and "simplified language" to make content more accessible. Register here.
// Trust & safety workshop: call for contributions
