Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can assist in various tasks, from content writing and mathematics, to code generation and image creation. But with AI technology constantly improving, deeper reflections over its implications for spirituality and religious practice are becoming increasingly needed. Religious scholars are beginning to enter conversations around the ethical uses of AI. Some have expressed concerns about religious authority and authenticity since AI programmes can technically attend to congregants’ religious needs – including over existential, theological and spiritual issues. Others fear that their freedom of thought and belief can be compromised by a reliance on AI and their algorithms. In this lecture, both fears such as these and potential advantages from the use of AI will be further discussed by the speakers.

About the Speakers

Shaykh Ahmed El Azhary is a researcher in Islamic intellectual history and a teacher of Islamic traditional sciences. Besides teaching at various academies around the world in both Arabic and English, he is a Visiting Fellow at Tabah Foundation. He earned a Bachelor’s in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University, studied Anthropology at the American University in Cairo and received his training in Leadership Communication from Tulane University and The University of Alabama at Birmingham. A life-long learner, he holds a diversified portfolio of almost 50 certificates in a variety of subjects – extending from Teaching Character and Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People to Complexity Theory, Model Thinking and Conflict Analysis, and has  also written and edited several publications.

Fr David Garcia, O.P., lectures at the Major Seminary and Catholic Theological Institute of Singapore in Moral Theology and is a well-known speaker who has addressed a spectrum of issues affecting society ranging from family life, social justice, and bioethics; he has worked and/or is working with various church organisations including Office for Catechesis, Catholic Medical Guild and Caritas Singapore.