AI is the Christianity of Technology

Recently, while reading a book on Islamic art, the author quoted the first phrase that God communicated to the Prophet Muhammed was  “Read, ˹O Prophet,˺ in the Name of your Lord”. Jews are known as “people of the book”, known for studying the Torah and its interpreters. Both religions place an emphasis on reading, education and learning scripture and learning in general. Christianity holds to its core principals, mainly focused on the divinity of Christ, the divinity of the Church and the salvation of the faithful- essentially, a belief based on Faith. Through this lens, it seems a safe comparison to say that AI is the Christianity of technology. The basis of Christianity seems to focus on Faith and belief- not to say that study is not important but the main focus is on belief. Our fundamental belief around Artificial Intelligence seems to be the same. We believe and do not question. The reason for this is that much AI occurs in Black Box AI, that is, a system whose inputs and processes are not visible to the user or other interested parties, it is only to be accepted. There are those voices in the wilderness, decrying the creation of yet another system created by that replicates the biases of the almost entirely male, predominantly white work force. However we already see the cultural eyes glazing over in this country, more content to follow the idol that all progress is good and necessary. In Europe there are levels of acceptability for AI, ensuring the rights of the humans who created it; chat bots are acceptable but biometric systems and social scoring are not. Europe seems to be willing to demand some visibility and accountability where the Christian West seems to hope only in the salvation by faith.