Abstract

AI and the Future of Humanity: Challenges and Opportunities for a Plural Society

From AI-scripted sermon to AI-assisted essays for academic submissions, to AI designs and visuals, these are just some of the tools derived from Artificial Intelligence. With countless tools available, AI can assist in various tasks, from content writing and mathematics to code generation and image creation. With AI technology constantly improving, it is daunting to imagine where AI will bring us next, although some of its features and potential can be really unsettling, especially in regard to human and religious values.
Religious scholars and thinkers are entering the foray of conversations around the ethical uses of a rapidly expanding technology, the Artificial Intelligence. Feared to have a consciousness of its own, which is kind of the very objective of its advent, some spiritual leaders have expressed concerns that they might one day be replaced by AI bots that can answer all of the congregants’ questions and needs. Others worry that thousands if not millions of jobs may be lost to AI automations. Religious practitioners also fear if people will lose their free exercise as they rely on AI and algorithms to make decisions in their life, in education, communications, medicine, jurisprudence, what they watch and hear, their transportation, and so on.
The question is, will the AI tools become our servants, or will we become servants to AI? As Bill Gates recently said, “The age of AI has begun” and it is “as revolutionary as mobile phones and the internet”. In September 2022, Bill Gates watched in awe as he saw firsthand the AI model of OpenAI (ChatGPT) answered an Advanced Placement Bio examination – the AI model got 59 multiple-choice questions right, out of 60. He said it was “the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface” and he believes that it will revolutionise “the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other” and that “businesses will distinguish themselves by how well they use it”. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI to “to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform”.
The challenge of AI is so significant that three organisations – Vatican’s RenAIssance Foundation (VRF), the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace (ADFP) and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interfaith Relations – gathered together in January 2023 at the Vatican City to coordinate a “joint call for algorethics to guide the design of artificial intelligence” as they saw the extremely urgent need to “build paths of peace, mutual respect, dialogue and community”. The initiative was called The Rome Call.
Chief Rabbi Eliezer Simha Weisz mentioned that “there must be a creative tension between human creativity and the moral guidance that flows from our connection to the Creator of the Universe”, while Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah highlighted that religions and law are there to ensure that “scientific and technological innovations and achievements take into account ethical frameworks that preserve the dignity and nobility of man, and in fact protect his life”. Father Paolo Benanti from the RenAIssance Foundation interestingly said, “We must create a language that can translate moral values into something computable for the machine” and that man is the “true expert and bearer of values”.
Pope Francis addressed The Rome Call and said it was a “useful tool for a common dialogue among all, in order to foster a humane development of new technologies” and highlighted that the “acceleration of the transformations of the digital era have in fact raised unforeseen problems and situations that challenge our individual and collective ethos”. In the dialogue, Brad Smith from Microsoft assured that “AI remains a tool created by humanity for humanity” and that Microsoft will be committed to a “high ethical standards and a broad sense of societal responsibility”.
Indeed, there are many ethical dilemmas to consider in this era of Artificial Intelligence. The fact is that religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam have not shied away from dealing with such ethical quandaries since time immemorial. The growth of AI will indeed have serious theological implications. Human-like intelligence of AI may pose a challenge totraditional beliefs and concepts like on existential matters. Debates may be abound arising from AI-powered interpretation of sacred texts, thereby triggering theological challenges on religious authenticity.
The seminar presenters will discuss the challenges and opportunities AI may present to religious adherents and communities with a values-based belief and moral system.

About the Speakers

Shaykh Ahmed El Azhary is a researcher in Islamic intellectual history and a teacher of Islamic traditional sciences. Besides teaching at various academies around the world in both Arabic and English, he is a Visiting Fellow at Tabah Foundation. He earned a Bachelor’s degree equivalence in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University, studied Anthropology at the American University in Cairo and received his training in Leadership Communication from Tulane University and The University of Alabama at Birmingham. A life-long learner, he holds a diversified portfolio of almost 50 certificates in a variety of subjects – extending from Teaching Character and Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People to Complexity Theory, Model Thinking and Conflict Analysis, and has has also written and edited several publications.

Fr David Garcia, O.P., lectures at the Major Seminary and Catholic Theological Institute of Singapore in Moral Theology and is a well-known speaker who has addressed a spectrum of issues affecting society ranging from family life, social justice, and bioethics; he has worked and/or is working with various church organisations including Office for Catechesis, Catholic Medical Guild and Caritas Singapore.