What Does it Mean to Consider AI a Person?

作者：Mark Graves · 发表于：Theology and Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1080/14746700.2023.2230424 · 被引用次数：11

As artificial intelligence (AI) further pervades society, it raises a number of ethical issues as well as optimistic and pessimistic expectations for its effect. Theologians and religious ethicists can and should bring the wisdom of the world’s religions to the immediate conversation. Regardless of further major AI research breakthroughs, the impact of current AI technology on work, entertainment, political discourse, and other aspects of society will be substantial, especially given the immense corporate resources currently dedicated to applying that technology. AI advances will impact theology, and the present editorial proposes one way theology can constructively impact AI. At the core of speculation on AI sentience, consciousness, moral responsibility, agency, and its possible intentions toward humanity is a question of whether, or to what extent, we should consider AI as a person. Although historical theological, scientific, and ethical theories of personhood influence contemporary discourse about AI, most technologists lack the religious literacy to identify these theories’ historical roots and the scholarly skills to reevaluate them in the current context. The significance of personhood is also exacerbated by human tendency to anthropomorphize. Theologians, engaging contemporary science, can characterize what it would mean for AI to be a person, informing contemporary conversations and clarifying the imagination of those AI developers who attempt to integrate cognitive...