Theology Day 2023: Partner or Servant: What are we looking for when we look for AI?
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
We all know that computers are excellent tools. But recent advances in AI seem to promise more. Robots are being designed as caregivers and even as sexual partners. Programs such as ChatGPT and Midjourney act as collaborators or relational partners. As Christians we are called to be in relationship with each other and with God. Are we now extending this call to computers? We will examine what it takes for a relationship to be fully authentic, with each other, with God, and with AI.
Noreen Herzfeld is the Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict. She holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Theology from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Herzfeld is the author of The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic World (Fortress, 2023), In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (Fortress, 2002), Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (Templeton, 2009), and editor or co-editor of Religious and Cultural Implications of Technology-Mediated Relationships in a Post-Pandemic World (Lexington, 2023) and Religion and the New Technologies (MDPI, 2017). Herzfeld is also a senior research associate at the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies, Koper, Slovenia
Creative Commons License
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Recommended Citation
Herzfeld, Noreen L., "Theology Day 2023: Partner or Servant: What are we looking for when we look for AI?" (2023). Theology Day Lectures. 12.
https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_theology_day/12