Islamic Ethical Discourse on AI: Three Challenges in Focus
Abstract: Cutting-edge AI technologies pose tough ethical questions and challenges that cut across people’s geographies, moral convictions and religious beliefs. As for the Islamic ethical discourse, this presentation will analyze three main challenges. First, the applications of AI technologies are creeping into the religious domain with questions about the (im)permissibility of “robotizing” significant Islamic rituals, e.g., replacing the leader of ritual prayer (imam) or the scholar who issues religious advice (mufti) with a robot or AI system. To analyze this challenge, reference will be made to a number of relevant fatwas in addition to the 2019 Dubai initiative to launch the first-of-its-kind AI-powered ‘Virtual Ifta’ service in both English and Arabic. Secondly, the deep and complex AI questions require not only direct answers to subject-specific questions, but also a reconsideration of one's overall worldview. Many Muslims believe that Islam has a comprehensive religio-moral system (Sharia), whose scope is flexible enough to respond to such grand challenges. The concept of ensoulment (nafkh al-ruh), with its theological and juristic dimensions, will be used to illustrate this Sharia-based dimension. This element will also be analyzed in relation to religious scholars' responses to computer engineers' questions about making humanoid robots. Thirdly and of particular relevance to the Gulf region context, are the international discussions on creating "transcultural AI principles". To highlight this challenge, the relevant (semi-)official documents produced by GCC countries will be critically reviewed. These documents extensively engage with widely circulated AI principles like fairness, justice and explainability. On the other hand, they also stress the need to consider the religio-cultural context of the Gulf region. To pave the way for the next presentation in the panel, it will examine how these documents tried to strike a balance between these two aspects of AI ethics so that they can produce an appealing legal and regulatory framework.
Author bio: Dr. Mohammed Ghaly is professor of Islam and Biomedical Ethics in the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE) and adjunct professor in the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the Scopus-indexed Journal of Islamic Ethics. He has a B.A. in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University (Egypt) and M.A. and PhD in the same specialization from Leiden University (the Netherlands). Islamic Ethics and its intersection with biomedical sciences and artificial intelligence belong to Ghaly’s main research interests. He is the Lead Principal Investigator (LPI) and research consultant of a number of funded research projects related to these research areas. He also published widely on these topics in both English and Arabic. His latest publications with relevance to AI are published in Computers in Biology and Medicine and Computer Science Review.
Recorded Presentation | 26 April 2023
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