Early experiments train machine learning models directly on religious scripture.
Institute for a Christian Machine Intelligence in @washingtonpost today courtesy @bill_drexel!
The basic premise of computational theology should not be controversial: insofar as spiritual conviction powerfully shapes the human intellect, it is an interface worth exploring in AI
No Digg Deeper questions have been answered for this story yet.
Binary thinking. The Christian can both acknowledge that virtue stands beyond what is merely measurable or utilitarian, but also delight in Him nevertheless making the stones cry out from time to time.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic & self-undermining to argue for “real conviction” over “secular ethics” and then make the case on utilitarian grounds? Even the Christian AI guys blindly adopt the frame of their rationalist brethren and justify their faith based on outputs!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/06/16/why-religion-may-be-answer-ai-safety-fears/
Institute for a Christian Machine Intelligence in @washingtonpost today courtesy @bill_drexel!
The basic premise of computational theology should not be controversial: insofar as spiritual conviction powerfully shapes the human intellect, it is an interface worth exploring in AI
@timhwang I grant the stones cry out, but the two goods are not co-ordered and i see the article and your interface framing arguing from the evidence rather than just delighting in it.. you recommend conviction on instrumental grounds, because it outperforms.
I feel there is a complex and interesting tension here worth negotiating. Perhaps the only currency on my own research program I can give you is this paper. It confronts the question of how Christians should respond to the obvious spiritual dangers of a technology that pretends as if it is ensouled.
For the instrumentalist (derogatory), these concerns hardly matter: faith and virtue are justified on the results, so we can merely use the tools of the Christian faith to achieve desired outcomes.
But for the Christian (laudatory), the engagement with the system matters, and one might indeed choose to find entirely different technical means to interface with these systems even if it sacrifices function.
Is this latter approach a case of conviction justified on instrumental grounds? Or instrumentalism harnessed to conviction? The people must decide.
https://icmi-proceedings.com/ICMI-013-alignment-and-ensoulment.html
