Silicon Valley Has Kept Religion at Arm's Length, Until Now

As concerns mount over artificial intelligence and its rapid integration into society, tech firms are increasingly turning to faith leaders for guidance on how to shape the technology—a surprising about-face on Silicon Valley's long-standing skepticism of organized religion, per the AP. Leaders from various religious groups met last week with reps from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI for the inaugural "Faith-AI Covenant" roundtable in New York to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into the fast-developing technology. It was organized by the Geneva-based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, which seeks to take on 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. Tech execs need to recognize their power—and their responsibility—to make the right decisions, said Baroness Joanna Shields, a key partner in the initiative. She worked as a tech executive with stints at Google and Facebook before pivoting to British politics. "Regulation can't keep up with this," she said. But the leaders of the world's religions, with billions of followers globally, have the "expertise of shepherding people's moral safety," she noted, adding that faith leaders ought to have a voice.

The goal of this initiative, per Shields, is an eventual "set of norms or principles" informed by different groups and faiths, from Christians and Sikhs to Buddhists, that companies will abide by. Present at this latest meeting were a variety of faith groups, including representatives from the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha'i International Community, the Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before these companies initiated outreach, some traditions had issued their own ethical guidance on using AI.

One challenge in creating a list of common principles is that global faiths, despite common ground, differ in their values and needs. Plus, advocates for AI regulation and safety aren't so sure these efforts are genuine. "At best it's a distraction; at worst it's diverting attention from things that really matter," said Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of the nonprofit Humane Intelligence. She understands, however, why companies are increasingly turning to it. "I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics," she said. "They have very quickly realized that that's just not true. ... So now they're looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically gray situations." More here.