Can faith leaders, steeped in tradition, contribute anything to the conversation of ever-new artificial intelligence? What if the questions they are asking are the same? When David Brenner realized the metaphysical overlap between the spiritual questions and the questions of AI ethicists, he decided to institute AI and Faith, which engages the fundamental values of the world’s major religions in modern ethical technological debates.
David joins Gretchen in this podcast and asks: Why is AI so attractive? Can generative AI create real art? Why does the current population distance itself from the spiritual yet become enamored with the virtual? And, how can disparate faiths find commonality in order to further the development of AI ethics?
4:54 - The growth of AI and Faith into an international and interdisciplinary network
7:30 - AI is a compelling subject because it mirrors back to ourselves yet also evokes a legitimate fear.
10:35 - AI and Faith puts tech leaders into conversation with a plurality of faith leaders “because their faith traditions are ancient wisdom that's been applied to ongoing developments throughout the last four millennia. And a lot has been learned from that. So how do we apply that to this new problem?”
14:07 - A Christian, building on the Jewish foundation, speaks of a grace-given, personal relationship with God and puts an emphasis on love and the power of the Holy Spirit to change man.
16:31 - How can we include faith among the other levers with which people find their voice? Faith-employee resource groups can help employees mature their faith into an ethical position on their own work.
22:17 - Faith and science are not so separate.
23:40 - Technology presents an interesting puzzle by rejecting the spiritual yet being fascinated by the virtual.
24:45 - The tech ethics conversation should engage and elevate the narratives and consequent values of different faith histories.
32:12 - A bot feels safer, more emotional, more human, and can be turned off. These digital interfaces have to be sent to seminary.
35:06 - GPT could help individuals deepen in their faith, allow individuals to create their own faith, or serve as a sparring partner to test their faith against other systems of belief.
19:18 - “We need some kind of a moral framework within which these GPTs can operate. And it shouldn't just be what bubbles up from big tech.”
44:07 - Generative models can be generators, but not craftsmen. The long-term engagement and challenge which make up the genius of an art are what make it venerable.
48:42 - AI is “so much like us, and yet more powerful potentially, that we're going to want to use it for everything we can get out of it, and then we're going to worship it. It's going to run our lives and we'll fall in love with it. So there's nothing new there except for the fact that it's extraordinarily functional.”
55:19 - “We really need to be bringing together sophisticated technologists and sophisticated ethicists and faith leaders to pull these levers as fast as we can [and ask,] on those things we do agree on, how do we love our neighbor and be an effective source for good in the world?... Because it's an all-hands-on-deck situation right now. And it's moving fast.”