I finally went back and read the New York Times “Op-Ed from the Future” that Prof. Saiber has mentioned in class a few times (“Artificials Should Be Allowed to Worship”). What an interesting and creative piece!

It led me to conversations that are currently taking place surrounding AI and religion. I found some really interesting things (Robot Priests, Vox; How AI is shaping religion, CNBC). Robots and AI are already finding themselves in religious spaces.  There are chatbox robots that Catholics can confess to. There is a German Protestant robot called BlessU-2 that gives blessings out to people. There is a Robot called Mindar that serves as a Buddhist priest in Japan (see the linked video). And already a number Christian theologians are starting to grapple with how to consider the eventuality of AI in the arching Biblical narrative of the relationship between God and God’s creation (Ilia Delio, James McGrath).

As a Christian I am very interested in how the future of AI might shape our theology. We have to ask questions about the soul and consciousness, whether being made in God’s image is something that would pass to a free-willed being of our own creation, whether the idea of sin can or should transfer to the lives of non-biological beings, and whether robots can, like humans, have a personal relationship with God. It’s all very interesting! But I am glad that, at this point, it’s all speculative.