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Coedited by Pamela E. Klassen and J. Barton Scott (both University of Toronto), “Seeking Alignment” demonstrates the many vectors by which the study of religion can—and must—contribute to the critical interrogation of Artificial Intelligence as a technology, a practice, a source of profit and environmental harm, and an obsession. How are AI’s critics and boosters drawing on histories of religion in imagining their sci-fi futures? How can religious studies partner with media studies, law, and computer science to provide much-needed critical insight into our tech-driven world?
Each author takes, as a kind of prompt, the topic of “alignment,” the term of art in tech-policy speak that asks whether AI can be aligned with human values. Religion scholars, of course, know how challenging it is to parse human values, let alone align with them. The essays collected here uncover surprising and unexpected AI histories and imaginaries, from the lived experiences of content-moderators to the legal regulation of AI to the gendered media infrastructures of an app and algorithm-based world.
For those desperately seeking alignment and those concerned that it may be too late for a digital intervention, the forum offers a religious studies toolset for gaining critical traction on a historical moment still in the process of unfolding.
