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God and Silicon Valley: The Place of Religion in the Development of AI
Join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the surprising resurgence of interest in Christianity within Silicon Valley and amongst developers of artificial intelligence.
Our panel of experts will explore questions such as:
What are the various factors driving the renewed curiosity?
How might the ascribing of attributes to artificial intelligence that have typically been ascribed to a higher power (such as “omnipotence” and “omnipresence”) both inform and distort our understandings of the potentials of AI?
What role might religion play in challenging and guiding the development of artificial intelligence?
What is both possible and desirable as it relates to aspirations for transcendence through technology, particularly in relation to the “merging” of the human brain with artificial intelligence?
This is a Reuben College Values&Society theme event, also supported by the Oxford Medical Humanities Research Hub.
Date:
5 February 2026, 17:00
Venue:
Reuben College
Venue Details:
Reuben College (Lecture Theatre)
Speakers:
Professor Andrew Davison (Christ Church, University of Oxford),
Bartek Papiez (Big Data Institute, Oxford)
Organising department:
The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
Part of:
Oxford Medical Humanities
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Eleanor Kerfoot
