There is great interest in artificial intelligence: its capabilities, opportunities, ethical concerns, and implications for human flourishing. Yet current conversations often fail to engage with a broad range of religious stakeholders and faith communities. This risks ignoring a central aspect of many people’s moral perspective, and centuries of spiritual wisdom, philosophy, and ethical thinking which could be valuable resources.

The Faith and AI project aims to connect with, listen to, and help inform these religious communities that form such a large constituent of human society around the world. We will explore practical, ethical and spiritual issues around AI with faith leaders. We aim to expand the inter-faith conversation by bringing in non-Anglophone and non-Western perspectives to raise awareness of connections, overlaps, and differences in religious thought on AI from outside of the Abrahamic faiths. This project has synergies with the Global AI Narratives project at the LCFI, and will further enhance our understanding of the impact of cultural contexts on the development of AI around the world.

Our first Faith and AI workshop took place in 2018, involving a broad range of contributors from many faiths. We are planning further workshops, as well as academic and popular outputs and publications.