Grounded in the academic study of religion, this project will address the historical and experiential aspects of what is happening now as humans increasingly turn to algorithms to answer their questions and respond to their deepest needs through feats of statistical correlation. In attending to the scale, dynamics, and stakes involved in the human-machine interface, this project will explore what is happening to key faculties of human being in this age of automated cognition. How are religious and secular practices of interpretation, memory, and mourning changing as people increasingly orient their spiritual compass by way of the “intelligence” behind the screen?
Over the course of the grant period, and in collaboration with members of the Institute of the Mechanical Surround (IMS), I will investigate the religious dimensions of computer science and the impact of generative artificial intelligence upon human practices of meaning-making and learning. Given that generative AI deliberately operates without a concept of semantic meaning, this project approaches this tumultuous moment by appraising the significance of AI in terms that are not its own.
Major activities during the grant period include: 1) the curation of a research and event space that invites community members to share stories about religion and AI; 2) a public lecture series hosting major scholars in the fields of religious and science studies; and 3) a podcast mini-series. These activities will be integral to 4) the research and writing of the PI’s monograph—The Religion of AI Observed. These coordinated activities will spur scholarship around as well as public interest in our critical questions. In addition to establishing the IMS as a space for collaborative and cutting-edge scholarship on religion, science, and society, I will also be exploring potential partnerships with university presses and leading journals in the study of AI.
