The Image of God in the Age of AI

The idea that human beings are created in the image of God is a central part of both Jewish and Christian theology, and with the rise of AI, it has become perhaps the best example of how ancient religious wisdom can moderate modern technology by reminding us of what we value most of all. If human beings are created in God’s image, if we have something in us that separates us from animals, then we have an idea to rally around, a way to articulate that humanity’s special status needs to be preserved at all costs.

Of course this concept, what Christians call Imago Dei and Jews call Tzelem Elokim, it’s not just used for articulation. In very real ways, the idea human beings share some essential feature with their creator has shaped our conception of ourselves, maybe most importantly in matters of law. For the Hebrew Bible, the special status of humans is listed as the reason why murder is illegal, and the concept of human dignity that grew from this theology has become so successful that is has almost entered into the realm of self-evident truths, something so basic that it hardly needs justification at all.

But, there’s a problem, which is that this theological idea is a lot more unstable than we’d like to admit. The way we understand the phrase today is quite different from its original meaning, both because our understanding of humanity has changed and because Jewish and Christian understandings of God has changed.

As for law, well despite the fact that the idea has shaped legal systems, it’s also been remarkably slow. In fact the Pope’s recent encyclical points out that it took 18 centuries for the church to resolve the tension between human dignity and the existence of slavery. The most disturbing problem of all is that this idea which we’re currently holding up as a north star when it comes to regulating AI, it might actually be hurting more than it’s helping.

For example, if you think that the image of God in humanity is the fact that we can reason, or that we can make moral choices, well, what are you supposed to do when it looks like AI can do those things too? If being created in the image of God just means that humans are special, well, what happens when the list of things which makes us special gets decimated?

Now, you might say that these are only problems for theologians, but I really don’t think so. Our world is in the middle of a major realignment on what makes humans valuable, and it’s hard to have that conversation if you leave out the history of how we decided that we’re valuable in the first place. And because that history runs through religion, it is really hard to talk about the future of human dignity, or even the future of AI dignity, without understanding how we got here.

So, let’s ask. What exactly does it mean to be created in the image of God, and how has that idea changed over time?

The best person to answer this question is Tomer Persico. Tomer’s a research fellow with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and he’s the author of the book In God’s Image: How Western civilization was shaped by a revolutionary idea, published by NYU Press last year. And I should say, Tomer’s book is not about AI in any way shape or form, but I think it is an essential read for our current moment and I think you’ll see why from the very beginning of our conversation.

Before we begin, you’ll notice the audio on Tomer’s end is a little degraded due to a technical issue during recording. Our editor Louis Gordon made a heroic effort to improve it. I thought it was a really excellent conversation. I hope you enjoy it.

My name is DZ Kalman, and this is Belief in the Future.

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DZ Kalman

Let’s start from the beginning. What does the Bible say about human beings being created in the image of God?

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