Can religion and AI work together?

While AI has been around for some time, the latest boom is driven by Large Language Models and the adoption of chatbots they power, such as ChatGPT.

I was reminded of Quranic verses that describe God’s creation of Adam, similar to Genesis in the Bible, while learning about LLMs. God informs the angels that he wants to set up a human as His representative on Earth. The angels warn God of the corruption a human can spread. God dismisses them, saying they do not know what He knows. He deems Adam superior to all angels as He has taught him “names” or the nature of all things.

Why do you think I was reminded of these verses? LLMs are taught by feeding them text from the internet, mirroring the nature of all things. And then there are many who came out to warn us about the dangers of AI, inspired by the dystopian scenarios depicted in movies like Terminator. Of course, there are believers who want the utopian optimism of robot helpers à la "The Jetsons." Beyond that, most of the technology and business world is interested in its pragmatic perspective: does AI solve problems or mitigate risks, save lives, improve the quality of life, or create value? At most, they want to look at the ethics of what training data is being used and how it propagates unfair biases, or its effects on various jobs.

Here, I want us to go beyond, think in terms of what effect it has on humanity in general, on our faith and meaning. How do we relate to these machines with intelligence? Does intelligence mean machines now have cognition? And as their creators, have we elevated ourselves to be God-like?

This is what drew me to the aptly titled book, "God Human Animal Machine — Technology, Metaphors, and the Search for Meaning," by Meghan O’Gieblyn. The book delves into profound questions about AI's impact on our lives, exploring consciousness and our relationship with anthropomorphic machines.

The author has a compelling story. Raised in a devout Christian household and studying at Moody Bible Institute, O’Gieblyn departed from her religious path due to a lack of faith. She turned to science and reason, only to find disillusionment there, too. Working at a bar, she was introduced to Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machine," which became a turning point, sparking an exploration into the intersections of technology, metaphor, and meaning. Kurzweil, a renowned futurist with significant credentials from MIT to Google, played a defining role in shaping O’Gieblyn's perspective. Her narrative unfolds as a series of meditations, encompassing theology, philosophy and modern science.

Starting with her emotional attachment to a lifelike robot pet dog and grappling with its consciousness and soul, she explores the implications of AI on our understanding of self and existence. It weaves through Kurzweil's "Transhumanism," tracing its roots to Dante’s concept of "transhuman," signifying a transcendence into a realm where the body experiences the world without fears, desires or biases. She touches on several topics, including algorithmic influence on our lives and the emerging ideology of Dataism, or how the flow of data controls the world.

Philosophical concepts, from Descartes’ Dualism to Panpsychism, find a place in O’Gieblyn's reflections. The discussion extends to Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," where complex questions about the existence of God are tackled through fiction rather than philosophical debates.

She explores the limits of our knowledge with a discussion on quantum physics, emphasizing our lack of a good grasp on its underlying principles. If we don’t know everything about the observable universe, how can we be confident in theological topics?

While O’Gieblyn asks many good questions, she leaves it to the reader to come to their own conclusion. Most of her readers may be technologists like me who delve into spirituality. Though, I know many in religious and spiritual communities that are already adopting all technologies to connect and engage with their communities, similar to any other business. Technology saved many of these communities during the pandemic, helping them stay together. AI adoption will be the same. We are already seeing churches experiment with AI sermons in Austin. I have talked to several religious leaders who use ChatGPT to help make their sermons more relevant without thinking into whether it is conscious.

In the end, I believe we all consider a more Sufi approach — take what is good by your truth, do no harm, be curious, learn and move on.

Shakeel Rashed works with various startups building AI and is on the board of Interfaith Action of Central Texas, CASA of Travis County and the Islamic Center of Lake Travis. Doing Good Together is compiled by Interfaith Action of Central Texas, interfaithtexas.org.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Religion and AI work together