Liminal Junctions: Spiritual Yearnings and the Pharmakon of Artificial Intelligence

After the second World War, and in the wake of medical atrocities that occurred in Nazi Germany, medical research exploded in volume but also teetered on the edge of a crisis. Many pre-war experiments—suspect in their moral grounding—continued after the war (think Tuskegee). Just as medical advances resulted in ethical questions around research and practice, today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents novel ethical issues to society (Gillon 2003).[1] In moments of possible crisis, there are always appeals for public displays of our ethical pieties.

Some have called for a Social Contract for AI, where signatories promise to abide by certain principles that might be able to manage the creation and usage of AI for good in the world. It has been suggested that the ethics of medicine might serve as a model for the ethics of AI (Hanna et al. 2024). Some have even suggested that something akin to an oath, not unlike that of the Hippocratic Oath, might be helpful in establishing an ethical ground for the usage of novel AI technology. In fact, several oaths or declarations have been created as a means to ensure confidence in data science and developer communities. Most recently, theologians, philosophers, users, and developers of Artificial Intelligence through the facilitation of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion gathered to create the Oxford Oath for AI Professionals. One might even imagine that by swearing allegiance to adhere to some ethical code, professionals might be able to hold themselves accountable for their AI creations.[2]