Prof. Dr. Birte Platow
Professorin für Religionspädagogik
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Prof. Dr. Birte Platow is a founding member of GeNet-ISMRC.
Why Artificial Intelligence might take the place of God – theological reflections upon a new technology
Why out of all disciplines should theology deal with artificial intelligence? At first sight it seems that hardly any scientifc discipline has less point of contact with this new kind of technology that is expected to change our future radically.
But if you take a closer look you might detect that the human predisposition to imagine an ultimate (God) that exceeds all human capacities and transcends the individual poses very specific presuppositions to how we perceive artificial intelligence. Against this background it is actually not surprising that artificial intelligence is expected to bring either ‚salvation’ or ‚Armageddon’ (and hardly anything in between) to humankind.
During the past two years I carried out a qualitative empirical study that aims at finding out in how far our perception of and our expectation towards this new technology is influenced by religious feelings and ideas. Interestingly the findings of my research do not only give proof of a very specific perception of a new technology but also of changing self-images of the individual. Implicitly and unconsciously this may also influence the way we shape our future with artificial intelligence quite profoundly as could be confirmed in a interdisciplinary discourse at the ‚Digital Society Initiative’ (part of the University of Zurich, Switzerland) where the research was affiliated originally before I became member of the Technical University in Dresden, Germany.
In consequence it becomes clear that the contribution of theology (and further social sciences) may not only be to discuss ethical issues in the course of future application of artificial intelligence but that its competence starts sooner, reaches further and is more profound than it is perceived presently. At the same time the findings of my study raise quite specific questions in the field of religious education: what kind of religious education do we need in a (digitalized) future? In how far corresponds present religious education to the various religious needs? And if it doesn’t in how far might this reinforce manifestations of religious feelings via technology, respectively a specific attitude towards new technologies?
Presently/in the near future I am about to develop the described project further in new fields of application (in the field of care robots)