Belief in the Future

When we talk about relationships with AI, we often focus on whether these machines are alive or sentient. But life and sentience aren't necessary for relationships; in fact, we often have deep relationships with objects and animals—and we often treat people like objects, too. There is a theory of relationship that understands this, and it's the one proposed by Martin Buber, author of "I and Thou" and many other works. In this episode we speak with Dustin Atlas about Buber and AI, author of the book How to Talk to a Cat: Buber, Philosophy, and Dialogue with Unspeaking Things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI conversations have a tendency to become so big that you can't really locate yourself within them. For this episode we're flipping the script and talking about a longstanding conversation into which AI has unexpectedly intruded: women's religious leadership. Sara Wolkenfeld is Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria. She joins the podcast to discuss her recent article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does our inevitable deaths change how we live—and how does fear of loss change how we develop technology? Alex Sarkissian is a death doula and a co-founder of the Buddhism and AI Initiative; he joins us to discuss his recent article on AI and Dying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does AI portray religion? Does it talk about it in the way that most Americans do? Does it treat all religions the same? CEFE-AI (https://cefe.ai/) is a multi-university consortium that has been trying to answer these questions. For the last few months it has been developing benchmarks on how AI models treat faith, and the results are surprising. On this episode we talk with David Wingate, professor at BYU and academic lead for CEFE-AI, about the group's work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, AI is new and unique—but we've been through an information revolution before. The printing press transformed religion, authority, and public life. Those upheavals offer insights into the age of AI. Michelle Margolis is the Norman E. Alexander librarian for Jewish studies at Columbia University, and she's the past president of the Association of Jewish Libraries. From censorship and misinformation to expertise and trust, we explore why history still matters when technology changes everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices