Series of webinar "artificial intelligence and religion - air2020/21" – September 2020 - April 2021

 The biweekly webinars will explore current interactions between research and innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) on the one hand, religious communities, institutions, practices, precepts, beliefs, and rites on the other. The series will bring together speakers from AI, religious studies, anthropology, economics, legal studies, philosophy, and sociology. It is structured into three thematic sections:

(A) Sociological, Anthropological, and Religious Studies Approaches to AI and Religion

(B) Utopian and Dystopian Techno-Futures: AI, Transhumanism, and Religion

(C) Values and AI: Machines, Ethics, and Religion

Among the topics to be covered:

• the role of religious vocabulary in popular AI narratives and techno-utopian or dystopian visions of human futures,
• the involvement of religious actors in shaping current debates over AI governance,
• the impact of AI technologies on freedom of religion or belief,
• the value alignment problem for AI with regard to religiously grounded values,
• and the discrepancy between non-expert perceptions of AI and the current state of the art in AI research, development and innovation.

Attendance is free. Registration now open.

For the complete programme, information about speakers and abstracts, go to the website AIR2020/21 

(A) Sociological, Anthropological and Religious Studies Approaches to AI and Religion

(1) 16 September 2020, 16:00 – 17:30 CEST
Yaqub Chaudhary (Cambridge Muslim College): Interacting with and within the Artificial (abstract   )
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(2) 30 September 2020, 16:00 – 17:00 CEST
Beth Singler (Cambridge University): “Blessed by the Algorithm”: Religious Conceptions of AI and Their Impact on Society (abstract   )
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(3) 14 October 2020, 16:00 – 17:00 CEST
Stef Aupers (KU Leuven): “Things Greater than Thou”: AI and a Technical re-enchantment of the World (abstract   )
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(4) 4 November 2020, 16:00 – 17:00 CET 

Lionel Obadia (University of Lyon 2 and French National Research Agency): Magic of AI, AI for magic? Magical thinking practices and digital Age: Remarks for an opening field of study (abstract)

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(5) 11 November 2020, 16:00 – 17:00 CET 

Inken Prohl (University of Heidelberg):  Algorithms as Formations Analogous to Religion: Discourses and Materialities (abstract)

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(6) 25 November 2020, 16:00 – 17:00 CET 

Erica Baffelli, (University of Manchester); The Android and the Fax: AI and Buddhism in Contemporary Japan (abstract)

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(B) Utopian and Dystopian Techno-Futures: AI, Transhumanism, and Religion

(7) 9 December 2020, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CET

Oliver Krüger (University of Fribourg): God, the Singularity and the Transcendent Superintelligence: Philosophical Contexts of the Transhumanist Utopia

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(8) 13 January 2021, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CET

Robert Geraci (Manhattan College): Technological Give-and-Take: Religions of AI in Indian Science and Engineering

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(9) 27 January 2021, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CET

Zachary Calo (Hamad Bin Khalifa University): Human Dignity after the Human

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The series is embedded in the    mission on religion and innovation    of the Center for Religious Studies (FBK-ISR), as articulated in our 2019 position paper    and    Strategic Plan 2019-2021   . It continues our 2018/19 workshop series    Religion and Innovation   . While focusing on research, the series is also to be seen within the context of FBK-ISR’s work on AI governance and policies. Following extensive consultations with religious actors, FBK-ISR has recently published a response paper to the European Commission’s public consultation on the    White Paper on Artificial Intelligence    and participated in the    UNESCO’s public online consultation on the ethics of AI   . For an account of FBK-ISR’s work on religion and innovation please consult our booklet    Religion & Innovation at FBK   .

The webinar series is organised by the Center for Religious Studies (FBK-ISR   ) in collaboration with FBK's Center for Information and Communication Technology (FBK-ICT   ).

 The scientific committee in the following order:

• Boris Rähme, Researcher at the Center for Religious Studies, FBK
• Oliviero Stock, Head of the Research Area Artificial Intelligence, Center for Information and Communication Technology, FBK
• Paolo Traverso, Director of the Center for Information and Communication Technology, FBK
• Marco Ventura, Director of the Centre for Religious Studies, FBK

Speakers

• YAQUB CHAUDHARY SPEAKER Cambridge Muslim CollegeYaqub Chaudhary holds a PhD in Physics from Imperial College London, where he worked on the Physics of Plastic Electronic Materials and their potential use in future types of lasers. Prior to this he studied Electronic Engineering at the same institution. As Research Fellow in Science and Religion he is reprising his long-standing interest in Artificial Intelligence and his current research project will consider recent developments in the fields of AI, cognitive science and neuroscience in connection with Islamic conceptions of the mind, intelligence, human reasoning, cognition, knowledge, the nature of perception and consciousness.
• BETH SINGLER SPEAKER University of CambridgeBeth Singler is the Homerton Junior Research Fellow in Aritificial Intelligence, and she is exploring the social, philosophical, ethical, and religious implications of advances in AI and robotics from an anthropological perspective. She is also an associate research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence where she is collaborating on the AI: Narratives and Justice project where she is bringing in social and digital anthropological perspectives to work on the impact of the accounts we give of AI. Her background is as a social anthropologist of New Religious Movements, and her monograph is the first in-depth ethnography of the Indigo Children - a New Age re-conception of both children and adults using the language of both evolution and spirituality. She has also written on the development and legitimation of other New Religious Movements and digital identities through social media and online conversations.
• STEF AUPERS SPEAKER KU Leuven  Stef Aupers is professor of media culture at the Institute for Media Studies. As a cultural sociologist, he studies the role of cultural meaning in the production, textual representation and consumption of media. Stef published widely in international journals on topics like religion, modern myth, conspiracy theories and, particularly, the way these cultures are mediatized. Most of his current research projects are focussed on digital game culture.
• LIONEL OBADIA SPEAKER University of Lyon 2 and French National Research AgencyLionel Obadia, Ph-D in Sociology (1997) has been associate professor in Ethnology (1998-2004) and is full professor in Anthropology (since 2004) at the University of Lyon, France. He now heads the department of Social Sciences and Humanities at the French Agency for Research (ANR). He has been teaching in other French universities (INALCO, EHESS, EPHE, SciencePo) and has been fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Strasbourg (France). He is specialized in anthropology of religion, Asian religions (Buddhism, shamanism, Hinduism) and Globalization, magic and modernity. He has conducted fieldworks in France, Europe, North America, Nepal, and South India. He has published 10 books, edited 17 special issues of peer-reviewed journals, and published more than 170 papers (journal articles and book chapters) in French, English, Spanish, Korean and Chinese. Selected publications: Religion et histoire globale, special issue of Diogène, n°256, 2019; Fleeting Sentiments of the Sacred, special issue of Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 2018; Global phenomena and social science (co-editor) (Springer, 2017); Religious diversity in Asia, Special issue of Approaching religion Vol 7 No 1, 2017; Experiencing religion. New approaches towards personal religiosity (co-editor) Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2016; Satan (Paris, Ellipses, 2016); Shalom Bouddha! Bouddhisme et judaïsme, l’improbable rencontre, (Paris, Berg International, 2015); Globalization and the New Geographies of Religion, special issue of International Social Science Journal, vol 63, 2014; La marchandisation de Dieu. Economie religieuse (Paris, CNRS Editions, 2013); Anthropologie des religions (second edition, Paris, La découverte, 2012); The Economics of religion (With Don Wood) (London, Emerald, 2011); Le bouddhisme en Occident (Paris, La Découverte, 2007); La sorcellerie (Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu Editions. 2005); La religion (Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu Editions. 2004); Bouddhisme et Occident. La diffusion du bouddhisme tibétain en France (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999)
• INKEN PROHL SPEAKER University of HeidelbergInken Prohl is Professor of Religious Studies at Heidelberg University (since 2006). For several years she has been conducting fieldwork in Japan and Germany. Her research interests focus on modern transformations of Buddhism, approaches of ‚Material Religion’ as well as Religion and artificial intelligence. In cooperation with the project: Buddhism, Business and Believers she is currently working on new approaches to the field of Buddhism and consumption. Together with John Nelson she published the The Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions (Leiden: Brill 2012). Her publications also include Religiöse Innovationen: Die Shinto-Organisation World Mate in Japan (Reimer, 2005), Zen für Dummies (Wiley, 2010), “California 'Zen': Buddhist Spirituality Made in America“, in: Amerikastudien / American Studies Vol. 59, No. 2 (2014), S. 193-206 and “Aesthetics”, in: Plate, S. Brent (Hg.): Key Terms in Material Religion. London et al: Bloomsbury Academic 2015, S. 9-15.
• ERICA BAFFELLI SPEAKER University of ManchesterErica Baffelli is currently Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). Before arriving at Manchester in 2013 she was visiting researcher at Hosei University (Tokyo) and post-doctoral research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2005-2007) and Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Otago (New Zealand, 2007-2013). She is also the Director of the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, a consortium sponsored by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) of seven universities and HEIs. She is interested in religion in contemporary Japan, with a focus on groups founded from the 1970s onwards. Recent publications include: Dynamism and the Ageing of a Japanese 'New' Religion ( with Ian Reader, Bloomsbury 2019); Media and New Religions in Japan (Routledge 2016); Baffelli and Reader (eds), Aftermath: the Impact and Ramifications of the Aum Affair. Special Issue of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 39 (1), 2012; and Baffelli, Reader and Staemmler (eds), Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation and Authority (Routledge 2011).
• OLIVER KRÜGER SPEAKER University of FribourgOliver Krüger (*1973) is professor for Religious Studies at Fribourg University (Switzerland). After finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn, he did research at Heidelberg and Princeton University on Wicca resp. the US funeral culture. Krüger is specialized in the relation of media, science and religion. Major publications: Virtualität und Unsterblichkeit. Gott, Evolution und die Singularität im Post- und Transhumanismus. Freiburg 22019 (English publication forthc. 2020); Die mediale Religion. Probleme und Perspektiven religionswissenschaftlicher und wissenssoziologischer Medienforschung. Bielefeld 2012.
• ROBERT GERACI SPEAKERManhattan CollegeRobert M Geraci is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in New York City. He is the author of Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality (Oxford 2010), Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life (Oxford 2014), and Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science (Lexington 2018). His research has been supported by grants from the American Academy of Religion, the National Science Foundation (U.S.A.), and twice by Fulbright-Nehru Professional Excellence (Research) awards
• ZAKARY CALO SPEAKER Hamad Bin Khalifa UniversityZachary R. Calo is Professor of Law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He is also Research Scholar in Law and Religion at Valparaiso University, Fellow at Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, Visiting Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, The Open University (UK), and Professor (Adj.) at Notre Dame Law School Australia. He has taught at Valparaiso University Law School, Notre Dame Law School, DePaul University College of Law, and Hangdong International Law School (South Korea), and been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. He practiced law at BuckleySandler, LLP in Washington, DC.

Source: https://air2020.fbk.eu/