LOS ANGELES: As concerns grow over artificial intelligence and its rapid integration into society, tech companies are increasingly turning to faith leaders for guidance on how to shape technology — a surprising about-face in Silicon Valley’s long-standing skepticism of organized religion.
Leaders from various religious groups met last week with representatives from companies including Anthropic and OpenAI for the inaugural “AI Covenant” roundtable in New York to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into the rapidly evolving technology. It was organized by the Geneva-based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, which aims to tackle issues such as extremism, radicalization and human trafficking. The roundtable is expected to be the first of several around the globe, including in Beijing, Nairobi and Abu Dhabi.
Technology leaders need to recognize their power – and their responsibility – to make the right decisions, said Baroness Joanna Shields, a lead partner in the initiative. She worked as a technology executive with stints at Google and Facebook before moving into British politics.
“The rule cannot go on like this,” she said. But the leaders of the world’s religions, with billions of followers around the world, have “the expertise to protect people’s moral security,” she reasoned. Faith leaders need to have a voice, Shields said.
“This dialogue, this direct connection is so important because the people who are building this understand the power and capabilities of what they’re building and want to do it right — most of them,” she said of the AI technology leaders.
The goal of the initiative, according to Shields, is an eventual “set of norms or principles” informed by various groups and faiths, from Christians to Sikhs to Buddhists, that companies will adhere to.
