This event discussed the various and manifold relationships between AI and religion, ranging from religious and techno-political imaginations of the future and how we should live, to questions around agency, identity, and power.

Robert M. Geraci is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College and author of several books, including Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (Oxford 2010) and Futures of Artificial Intelligence: Perspectives from India and the United States (Oxford 2021). His research has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the American Academy of Religion, and twice by Fulbright-Nehru Professional Excellence (Research) Awards.  He is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion.

Noreen Herzfeld is the Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict.  She holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Theology from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.  Herzfeld is the author of In Our Image:  Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (Fortress, 2002), Technology and Religion:  Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (Templeton, 2009), The Limits of Perfection in Technology, Religion, and Science (Pandora, 2010) and editor of Religion and the New Technologies (MDPI, 2017).  Herzfeld is a research associate at the Institute for Philosophical Studies, Koper Slovenia and the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa.   She is a co-founder and writer for the Avon Hills Salon at avonhillssalon.com.

Damien Patrick Williams is a PhD candidate in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, at Virginia Tech in the United States. Damien researches how technologies such as algorithms, machine intelligence, and biotechnological interventions are impacted by the values, knowledge systems, philosophical explorations, social structures, and even religious beliefs of human beings. He is especially concerned with how the consideration and treatment of marginalized peoples will affect the creation of so-called artificially intelligent systems and other technosocial structures of human societies. More on Damien’s research can be found at AFutureWorthThinkingAbout.com/?page_id=5038

The event was moderated by Mona Sloane and supported by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, the NYU Center for Responsible AI, the 370 Jay Project, and the NYU Tandon Department of Technology, Culture and Society.