ChatGPT moved artificial intelligence (AI) from the theoretical to the real for millions of people. Politicians and bureaucrats may debate controls, but it will no more be possible to turn back the clock on AI than it would be to return to the days before automation, computers, email or the internet. Researchers now believe AI could fundamentally alter about 80 percent of American jobs.
In a recent visit to Baghdad, I had the opportunity to discuss AI with a range of contacts ranging from the religious to the secular. Few had considered the impact AI or any future Arabic version of ChatGPT could have upon them.
They should. Religion is not immune to technology.
My doctoral dissertation was a deep dive into the impact the nineteenth century introduction of the telegraph had on the Persian world. Not only did it enable the mass political movement and revolutionize an economy previously dependent on physical exchange of coinage, but it also led to profound changes in the Shi’ite hierarchy. Then, as now, Shi’ites chose their own source of emulation (Marja al-taqlid) from among the top living ayatollahs of the day. The telegraph allowed ordinary Shi’ites to bypass local and national middlemen and send their religious queries directly to Najaf, even if followers lived as far away as India or Russia. As a result, the number of top marja shrank from more than a dozen to just two or three.
While Western commentators often treat the term fatwa as a religious declaration, in reality, it is a ruling given in response to a question. The question then becomes what might occur should young Muslims ask an Arabic ChatGPT for religious advice. I asked a Shi’ite scholar about this and he suggested that while the artificial intelligence might be a problem among Sunnis who lack a defined hierarchy, the Shi’ite community respected the position of the hawza (loosely, seminary) enough that they would be immune.
I am not sure he is correct. First, the scourge of religious populism remains a problem across the sectarian spectrum. The fervent backers of Muqtada al-Sadr, an unqualified scholar, is a case in point. Second, while traditional Shi’ite scholars remain aloof from politics, the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s followers being the notable exception, the hawza in Najaf remains worried about its broader association with Iraq’s Shi’ite ruling class given popular disdain with their rampant corruption. This suggests real concern that the respect of young people for the institution is declining. Lastly, while traditionally Shi’ites follow a living ayatollah, in recent decades, the offices of many of these sources of emulation continue after their death. Might younger, tech-savvy Shi’ites ask an Arabic ChatGPT program to answer a religious query in the style of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who died in 2010? Or perhaps an Iranian nationalist will ask artificial intelligence for a ruling in the style of Mirza Hasan Shirazi who, in 1891, issue the famous fatwa against tobacco use to protest British inroads into the industry?
Nor will Islam be the only religion affected. Jewish scholars can spend decades studying in a yeshiva, pouring through the writings of rabbis from centuries past. Might future religious students ask for religious interpretations in the style of Maimonides? Or the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson? Could Catholics seek the insight of Pope John Paul II or the more conservative take of Pope Benedict XVI upon new issues that arise? While China may seek to hijack Buddhism following the death of the 14th Dalai Lama, could their efforts be for naught?
It is unclear what impact on religion artificial intelligence might have, but it will be profound. Existing religious hierarchies from Najaf to Jerusalem to Cairo to the Vatican may not fully be aware of the full force of what might soon hit them.
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