It might be true at the moment that many religious people tend not to be interested in AI issues, safety, or AI X-risk. However, as the debate around these issues goes more mainstream (as it has been in the last month or so), enters the Overton window, and gets discussed more by ordinary citizens, I expect that religious people will start making their voices heard more often.
I think we should brace for that, because it can carry both good and bad implications for EAs concerned about AI X-risk. Sooner or later, religious leaders will be giving sermons about AI to their congregations. If we have no realistic sense of what they’re likely to say, we could easily be blindsided by a lot of new arguments, narratives, metaphors, ethical concerns, etc. that we haven’t ever thought about before (given the largely-atheist composition of both AI research and AI safety subcultures).
Good question; I’m not sure. I’d be very curious to know what leading Catholics, Evangelical Christians, mainline Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus think about all this.
Pope Francis issued a statement about AI ethics in January, but it’s fairly vague and aspirational.
Hi Steven, fair points, mostly.
It might be true at the moment that many religious people tend not to be interested in AI issues, safety, or AI X-risk. However, as the debate around these issues goes more mainstream (as it has been in the last month or so), enters the Overton window, and gets discussed more by ordinary citizens, I expect that religious people will start making their voices heard more often.
I think we should brace for that, because it can carry both good and bad implications for EAs concerned about AI X-risk. Sooner or later, religious leaders will be giving sermons about AI to their congregations. If we have no realistic sense of what they’re likely to say, we could easily be blindsided by a lot of new arguments, narratives, metaphors, ethical concerns, etc. that we haven’t ever thought about before (given the largely-atheist composition of both AI research and AI safety subcultures).
Are there any religious leaders concerned about us creating God-like AI?
Good question; I’m not sure. I’d be very curious to know what leading Catholics, Evangelical Christians, mainline Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus think about all this.
Pope Francis issued a statement about AI ethics in January, but it’s fairly vague and aspirational.