ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MORAL AUTHORITY: A THEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING IN THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES

Abstract

This study is about coming up with artificial intelligence (AI) and moral authority from a theological point of view, and the effect that intelligent machines have on entities in society. As AI technologies have penetrated socio-economic and political life in unprecedented ways, the ethical standards of such systems are predominantly human-dependent. This raises questions about accountability and legitimacy, both inherently moral issues. A qualitative study was used where secondary data was thematically analyzed from theological texts, literature on ethics of AI and case studies of applications of AI to identify patterns of moral reasoning and ethical conflict. The findings show that AI's decision-making ability challenges the traditional religious notion of moral authority of human responsibility, justice, and compassion. The study demonstrates gap between logic of algorithms and ethical imperatives of theology that calls for inter-discipline engagement to integrate efficiency of technology with spiritual and ethical accountability. In the end, religious stories and the thoughts about God help design good AI which does not harm society or human being’s dignity.  It is recommended that ethical and theological perspectives should be included in the governance of AI. Moreover, religious institutions and AI developers should have discussions. This research fits in nicely with an emerging discourse on AI ethics. It argues a theology-philosophy-technology interface, which can help us better understand questions of moral responsibility in an AI world.