Presentations

Some of my recent and upcoming presentations are described here
Gracing of Sociotechnical Virtues

Gracing of Sociotechnical Virtues

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Virtuous AI Conference, Center for Theology and the Natural Science, Berkeley, CA.

Can AI be virtuous? The answer depends upon how one defines virtue and AI. A reasonably high and significant bar is to consider virtue theologically such that it could receive grace and to situate AI within the interleaved development of AI technology and social systems. A sociotechnical approach recognizes the mutual influence of technology on society and society on technology development and use, and extending the human dispositions and directions underlying virtue to include computational dispositions and norms enables examining sociotechnical virtue. I argue that even when considering virtue as something requiring grace to fully develop, one can still consider AI as virtuous in its sociotechnical context. In particular, I describe the gracing of sociotechnical virtue from the Protestant perspective of John Wesley, the Roman Catholic perspective of Karl Rahner, and the Orthodox Christian perspective of Irenaeus.

Search