Steven Kapp Perry speaks with Dr. Gray Cox on BYU Radio about the new age of AI and its influence on religious life. Artificial Intelligence has made its way into nearly every conversation over the last few months. We’re wondering, What does this mean for religious practice? Cox discusses how we train AI matters and reflects our own spiritual concerns. Cox is the author of Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth?, a book about dialogue and collaboration in this new age of AI. He teaches courses in philosophy, peace studies, language learning, and artificial intelligence at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. He is a cofounder and current Clerk of the Quaker Institute for the Future.
Cox also joined the West Falmouth Quakers to discuss the way Artificial Intelligence is transforming our world in ever more powerful and pervasive ways. How might it help promote what, in the FCNL phrase, is “The World We Seek?” In what ways does it threaten it? How can we as Friends best understand the ethical, economic, political, cultural, technological and spiritual challenges and opportunities it presents? How can we, as individuals and as communities, best speak to that of God in others in the context of the powers of reasoning and persuasion being exercised through AI?
