Given that a core foundation for Christian spirituality and spirituality in general is the human capacity for self-consciousness and the concept of slow knowing (lectio / visio divina) and given that designers of artificial intelligence are working towards greater capacity for “AI self-awareness” and speed in knowing, what do we conceive as the future interaction between AI and Spirituality? AI’s potential contribution to spirituality, morality, contemplative practices, and prayer are engaged in this session.
If Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enhance human morality, could AI also enhance spirituality? In considering the relationship between AI and spirituality, this paper examines the potential benefits and risks of moral enhancement through AI and relates some of these arguments to Hugh of St. Victor’s notion of the ark of wisdom. I argue that while AI can indeed assist morality, a key aspect of spirituality, there are other key facets in the cultivation of morality such as the practice of memorization and the internalization of reading that belongs exclusively to the human agent. If Hugh’s spirituality as depicted in the ark of wisdom is sound, then it follows that while AI can enhance spirituality, it only does so to a limited degree. While AI and spirituality should remain partners, they must remain partners by delineating key practices of spirituality.
A famous poem by R. S. Thomas, “The Empty Church,” one of the poems that widely associates him with Holy Saturday, describes an existential search for God in a post-religious age. But today, the poem also captures something telling about spiritual life in our era of artificial intelligence—indeed, perhaps the spiritual life of artificial intelligence itself. This is because, in addition to its existential theme, the poem takes the form of a broken sonnet. The sonnet form evokes completion, closure, harmony, though in “The Empty Church” its fracture instead registers as noise, mimicry, simulation. The poem thus functions as an allegory of artificial intelligence, mimicking the quest for God in a search for the poet who might complete or repair its busted form. Thomas’s poem helps us understand the emergence of AI as a neural network with its own pathologies, its spiritual life a weakened version of our own.
Christian spirituality is inherently relational. As a discipline, Christian spirituality is devoted to the study and practice of being in relationship with God, oneself, others, and all of creation. The development of artificial intelligence and the anticipation of future, more advanced, artificial intelligences, raises questions about the practice and scope of Christian spirituality. This paper explores cautionary and constructive possibilities for partnerships between human beings and artificial intelligence. For example. how can the development of potential artificial consciousness expand the understanding of not only how, but who or what, may practice contemplative Christian spirituality? This appraisal draws upon several ideas and sources, including the 14th century mystic, Richard Rolle, Walter Wink’s social theology, Michael Burdett’s theology of technology, and the practice of contemplative prayer.
Images created by generative AI have raised controversy in the art world, where critics question the ability of AI to be creative since generative programs base their output on that of previous artists. The formulaic nature of icon painting would seem to make it ideally suited to generative AI. Nor would the virtual world preclude the veneration of icons. Yet most Orthodox theologians remain suspicious of digital technology. Theologically, AI generation raises fears of a new Docetism that separates spirit and matter. A second concern is rooted in the role of both icon and iconographer within the temporal community and the community of saints. Through prayer and contemplation, an icon establishes a relational triad linking iconographer, saint, and viewer. AI severs the relationship between iconographer and saint and has the potential to mislead viewers, since it is embedded in neither the community of the faithful nor of the saints.