Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction, by Beth Singler

“Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction” (2024), by Beth Singler, has been published a few weeks ago. The ebook edition, with a Creative Commons license, can be downloaded for free in PDF and EPUB formats.

Singler will give a talk about the material covered in the book at the Terasem Colloquium on December 14, 2024. The Colloquium will take place between 10am ET and 1pm ET via Zoom, and everyone is invited to attend.

The book gives a panoramic view of the intersections of artificial intelligence (AI) and related emerging technologies with both established religions and new religious movements inspired by AI (or even designed by AI). The book is structured in case studies (20 in total) and commentaries. I’m the protagonist of one of the case studies and I’m very familiar with the material covered in some of the others. From this vantage point, I can say that the book presents a clear, informative and insightful bird view of a vast landscape.

If I can find one minus in the book (but I guess Singler considers it a plus), it is that Singler consistently adopts the perspective of a detached scholar who observes and reports without taking side. Of course this is the right perspective, but still, readers like me would like to hear what she really thinks about this or that case study.