Proximate and Ultimate Concerns in Christian Ethical Responses to Artificial Intelligence

Bibliographic Data

ID21593822
AuthorsMark Burdett (0000-0001-9390-8015, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume36
Issue3
Pages620-641
Publication date2023-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Christian Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0953-9468 • E-ISSN: 1745-5235
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09539468231180135
OpenAlexW4381380871
LanguageEN
Citations received4

I argue here that Christian ethical responses to Artificial Intelligence (AI) ought to take on, largely, two different approaches. The first considers proximate ethical concerns related to AI. This ethical approach most often considers more immediate personal and socio-political repercussions and the kind of impact that is occurring now or in the very near future. Proximate ethics of this type includes discussion about fairness, accountability, sustainability and transparency. The second concerns ultimate ethics which focuses on the longer-term impact and implications of AI. Examples of this type might include issues of uniqueness, deep societal transformation and inequality, changes to personal character and even the role AI might have in God's ultimate economy of creation and grace. My contention is that the Christian church needs to attend to both approaches to AI and that when it focuses too myopically on one at the expense of the other it often eclipses the entire witness of the church in our technological society

Accountability · Environmental ethics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sustainability · Witness · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access