Religion and AI: Theisms and Conspiricisms

Drawing on recent ethnographic and transdisciplinary research, this talk will describe and begin to provide a framework and typologies for thinking about emerging spiritualities and religious improvisations in the entanglements of AI and religion. Connecting individuals, movements, and ideologies, this seminar will also delve into some of the most contemporary political and aspirational influences on people’s conceptions of AI and where it is headed. Ontological, eschatological, and teleological impulses in AI discourse will be explored, as well as emerging cultural phenomena such as the concept of the ‘Woke Mind Virus’, ‘the Network State’, and the ‘NPC meme’ and their connection to older religious and metaphysical ideas such as hyperstition, egregores and tulpas. AI theisms, religious improvisations, and new religious movements are increasingly visible and influencing the overall conversation about what AI and where it is going.

BETH SINGLER | University of Zurich

Cycle of Seminars: Conservation and Transformation in Ethics and Religion

Scientific coordination: Massimo Leone, Director FBK-ISR

Speakers

• Beth Singler - Guest Speaker

  University of Zurich

  Beth Singler is the Assistant Professor in Digital Religion(s), co-lead of the Media Existential Encounters and Evolving Technology Lab, and part of the directorate of the Digital Society Initiative, all at the University of Zurich. Her anthropological research considers the social, ethical, and religious implications in developments in AI and robotics. Beth has spoken at New Scientist Live, Ars Electronica, the Edinburgh Science Festival, the Cheltenham Science Festival, the Science Museum, and on BBC Click. A guest on BBC Radio's Start the Week, the Today Programme, Beyond Belief, Free Thinking, the Sunday Programme, and BBC Radio 3 for the Year of Blade Runner, and she also wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the Terminator for its 40th anniversary. In 2024 she published the Cambridge Companion to Religion and AI (co-edited with Fraser Watts) and Religion and AI: An Introduction. Her publications, interviews, and talks are all available at bvlsingler.com.

Registration

Registration to this event is mandatory.

The event will be held in English.

The presentation will take place in presence in the Aula Piccola FBK while places

Registration is compulsory by 21 March 2025 at 12 noon in order to organise the connection.

Contacts

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