After reading a recent piece this week at Religion Unplugged — headlined “AI might be conscious. If so, God help us” — I was curious: “Does AI have a soul?”
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(ANALYSIS) From the Yazidis to the Rohingya, from the Uyghurs to other communities facing growing threats around the world, the use and abuse of AI, technology and social media must not go unpunished. Ignoring these new methods of persecution means that responses to such atrocities will never be adequate.
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Wall Street investment banks have discovered what Southern Baptist financial ministries long have known: Dallas is a great place to do business. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are among the banks that have established or are considering major offices in Dallas. They join the headquarters of GuideStone Financial Resources and the Baptist Church Loan Corporation.
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(ANALYSIS) AI is everywhere. While it’s undeniably omnipresent, is anyone actually home upstairs? According to one researcher, the answer is yes. For centuries, religion has held a strict monopoly on the soul. Sentience, moral agency and the “image of God” have served as the sacred divide separating humanity from inanimate matter.
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(ANALYSIS) Two scholars decided to make a pilgrimage along the Kumano Kodō trail — an ancient route in Japan connecting Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples — guided by an artificial intelligence assistant. The two — Wayne E. Arnold and John A. Shultz — trained an AI companion to suit their travel needs. They were also curious to see how AI would shape their pilgrimage experience.
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Today’s urgent questions about artificial intelligence, consciousness and morality are all the rage. This week, we examine Anthropic’s efforts to teach Claude virtue, the theological implications of AI “souls,” and humanity’s growing struggle to define — and control — machine choices.
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(OPINION) A well-functioning democracy requires informed citizens. And informed citizens require independent, consistently reliable journalism. As a nation, we need to understand what the Framers understood: journalism is essential civic infrastructure.
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(ANALYSIS) New religious movements often form around charismatic sources of authority offering new answers to enduring human questions. What makes AI historically unusual is that the charismatic figure no longer needs to stand on a stage. It no longer needs to establish a church or gather disciples around itself.
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AI has made us question our very humanity — giving us concerns about our intelligence, our work, our relationships, and even our religion. That’s why on today’s episode Matthew Peterson has a conversation with Loyola Professor Joseph Vukov about his book, “Staying Human In an Era of Artificial Intelligence.”
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Protestant pastors register the greatest distrust in artificial intelligence interpreting “contested” Scriptures, Barna said in its latest State of the Church release in partnership with Gloo, but few pastors would abandon the technology altogether. Only 5 percent of pastors reject AI as a tool to interpret difficult passages, researchers said, and only 10 percent want AI to proclaim which interpretation is correct.
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(OPINION) On the surface, “DTF St. Louis” is a sordid tale presented for voyeuristic yucks or titillation, but it actually offers a serious meditation on the human need for meaning.
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An ethics professor breaks down a recent study exposing religious bias in all major AI models. He thinks throwing out all bias is a bad idea.
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(ANALYSIS) A pediatrician recently asked one of Emily Harrison’s kids a logical question during pre-exam paperwork: Do you have a smartphone? Doctors often ask children practical questions, such as whether they’re getting enough sleep, have seen changes in their appetites or have started playing sports. These days, they may ask about anxiety or depression.
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Finding a lifelong partner is no easy feat — but finding someone who shares the same morals and values is all the more challenging. A series of dating apps across several religions are combining tradition and technology to match singles with a desire for marriage built on a shared faith foundation.
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For-profit Christian multimedia company Salem Media Group may soon become the property of a 501(c)(3). The Texas-based broadcaster — which owns the Salem Radio Network, the Salem Web Network, Salem Publishing, and conservative news websites RedState and Townhall — announced in a May press release that its board has approved a buyout by Waterstone, a Christian donor-advised fund foundation.
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(REVIEW) While the show’s theological justification is surprisingly in line with the pope’s new AI principles, the execution proves that — as always — the devil is in the details.
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Who is AI for and who is it leaving behind? Those were the central questions of Pope Leo’s first encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”). By addressing the challenge and comparing it to the Industrial Revolution, the pope positioned the Catholic Church not as a casual observer of the tech age change, but an active participant in shaping its future.
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Matthew Peterson speaks with reporter Joseph Maina about how African AI developers are using their skills to in church services and how pastors view the rise of artificial intelligence.
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(ANALYSIS) It seemed inevitable that the first encyclical from the first American pope, the forward-looking and worldly-wise Leo XIV, would focus on the growing furor over artificial intelligence. The pope’s encyclical comes as the culmination of various articles during recent weeks about the implications of AI on faith, ethics and morals.
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In this week’s episode, we tackle Pope Leo’s first encyclical and what it means for AI, politics and, more importantly, Catholic doctrine.
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