Spring 2024 | Ghost in the Machine: The Ethics of A.I.
Ready or not, Artificial Intelligence is now embedded in the life of the world— healthcare, military strategy, media, the arts, and elsewhere. Is A.I. a godsend or threat? To Yale Divinity School, it’s urgent to address A.I.’s power now—implications for faith, congregations, human destiny—even as conditions morph and escalate. According to Amara’s Law, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Nevertheless, the writers here pursue arguments vital to the ethical direction of this new force. “Technology is always a tool. We get to decide how we respond to A.I.,” writes Allen Reynolds ‘15 M.Div.
Cover image by julien Tromeur on Unsplash
Reflections
From the Dean's Desk
Plato reported that the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus said that a person “could not step twice into the same river” (Cratylus, 401d–402c). Heraclitus was speaking of the changes that take place in the cosmos. If we apply his bon mot to technological developments today, we can say that AI has accelerated the speed of the river to such an extent that it feels that the river changes even as a person’s foot is going into it.
Contents
Reflections is a publication of Yale Divinity School