Love as a Strategy in Developing AI
Around the 12th century, Hindu warriors were so enchanted by the power of their weapons they invented a ritual to honor them. Then farmers started honoring their plows. Musicians started honoring their instruments. Over time, these rituals coalesced into the full-fledged festival known as Ayudha Puja — the "rite of implements" or the “worship of the machines.”
At UU Saratoga and UU Boca Raton, we're coming up on our second annual UU Interpretation of Ayudha Puja on Sunday, October 13. We're inviting other UU congregations to join us.
Our plan is to spotlight another important thinker on Artificial Intelligence, building on what we began last year in our three conversations with Robert Geraci, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College:
It was in Geraci's Temples of Modernity that we learned of Ayudha Puja and started exploring the idea of a UU service inspired by this Hindu tradition. It will be interesting in coming years to hear how our voices and perspectives change. Last year, UU Saratoga minister Rev. Joe Cleveland gave us “Machined Soul,” while Rev. Nica Eaton contributed “Love in the Development of AI.”
What might this year's observance bring?
The expert we’re featuring is Shannon Vallor, one of our most astute thinkers on ways we must confront the myriad challenges that AI poses for humanity. As the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, she directs EFI’s Centre for Technomoral Futures. Her research explores how new technologies, especially AI, robotics, and data science, reshape human moral character, habits, and practices. She advises policymakers and industry on the ethical design and use of AI.
A former Visiting Researcher and AI Ethicist at Google. Vallor is the author of The AI Mirror: Reclaiming our Humanity in the Age of Machine Thinking, just published by Oxford University Press. This is the only AI focused book offered in the UUA Bookstore and is best read as a companion to Vallor’s first book: Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting.
Together, they point powerfully toward what might surmise is the future of Unitarian Universalism. Vallor makes no reference to UUism per se, but her message is likely to resonate strongly with most in our faith community.
First, we created this eloquent blend of Vallor’s main points in with those made by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his celebrated essay, “Self-Reliance.” This goes back nearly two centuries.
Now we’re featuring present-day thinkers we find in Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by Sophia Betancourt. UUA assembled these essays as part of the work of the Article II Study Commission.
Our approach is straight-forward. First we extracted this inspiring passage from Vallor’s conclusion in The AI Mirror.
Then we extracted these insightful excerpts from Love at the Center.
Then we gave ChatGPT this prompt:
In a 15-minute sermon to be delivered from Unitarian Universalist pulpits in our UU Interpretation of Ayudha Puja on October 13, combine Shannon Vallor's argument for engaging in the AI conversation with that of UU ministers who call for putting love at the center of our faith.
Close with an invitation to join UUs for Responsible AI, our grassroots initiative in alliance with AI and Faith to foster thoughtful dialogue rooted in UU principles of justice, equity, and compassion while promoting the ethical and responsible development of AI.
As Vallor reminds us in The AI Mirror, “A chatbot is a device for mathematically modelling language patterns and extrapolating from these to generate new mathematical tokens – hear “words” and “sentences” – that mirror those patterns.”
“A chatbot … uses words thoughtlessly in the most literal sense,” she adds.
And yet ChatGPT has articulated the message you’ll find below, which I think at least equals and probably exceeds in quality anything I might have drafted however many hours I might have devoted to the task.
We still must review ChatGPT’s draft with its human coauthors to ensure its faithfulness to their thinking and so we are labelling this a draft in development.
Love as a Strategy in Developing AI
AN AI-GENERATED DRAFT
FOR REVIEW BY HUMANS
INTENDED FOR SHARING IN UU Congregations
Good morning. On this October 13, we gather as a Unitarian Universalist community to celebrate our interpretation of Ayudha Puja, a festival in the Hindu tradition that honors the tools of work, knowledge, and creation. Today, we reflect on our own tools—not only the hammers, plows, and pens of old but also the profound technological tools of our present age, particularly artificial intelligence. As we consider these tools, we are called to ask: What are we building with them? How are they shaping our lives, and how might we shape them in return?
In her book, The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking, University of Edinburgh philosopher Shannon Vallor offers a stark challenge: many of us are sleepwalking through a time of rapid technological change. Vallor calls on us to wake up to the responsibilities we bear in shaping the future, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence. And so, today, I want to explore what it means to wake up, grab the wheel, and steer AI toward a future that aligns with our deepest values as Unitarian Universalists—values centered on love, justice, and the flourishing of all beings.
As Vallor reminds us, "We are indeed machines of a biological sort, like all living things. But we are among those rare machines who make ourselves." We are not static. We choose every day whether to remain as we are or to become something different, something better. This choice extends beyond ourselves to the societies we build. Through our collective imagination and action, we continuously shape the world around us, and AI is now a significant part of that world.
Vallor argues that technology is an expression of our human nature, not opposed to it. The tools we create—from the printing press to the transistor, from the till to artificial intelligence—are engines of "autofabrication," means by which we construct the world and ourselves. Yet, these tools are not neutral. As Vallor cautions, AI systems built to maximize profit, efficiency, or surveillance are like "tractor beams pulling us deeper into a dead-end past." The mirror of AI reflects the dominant values of our society, which too often are centered on consumption, control, and inequality.
We cannot afford to remain passive in the face of such power. If we do, we risk deepening the very harms we seek to repair—entrenching bias, widening inequality, and diminishing our collective freedom. Instead, we must take control of the wheel, guiding AI toward a future that aligns with our vision of the good. As Vallor says, "We have to set those goals for ourselves and hitch our powerful AI engines to them, with our own communities in the driver's seat." This is not a simple task, but it is one we cannot shirk.
Our technologies, including AI, can either diminish or enlarge our freedom, compassion, and capacity for love. If we fail to engage, we risk using these tools in ways that destroy or diminish the humanity of others—and of ourselves. But if we choose wisely, if we center our collective values, we can transform these tools into engines of generosity, engines that feed, nurture, heal, educate, and repair. The potential is vast, but it depends on our choices. AI, like all technology, must be guided by the true soul of its creators: not efficiency, but love.
Love at the Center
What does it mean to center love in our relationship with technology, particularly AI? Our Unitarian Universalist tradition is clear: love is not just a feeling, it is a practice, a discipline, and a force for transformation.
As Connie Goodbread reminds us, "The Love we are talking about is the Love that is inside of us and all around us. It holds us, supports us, and is greater than us." This love is not sentimental or passive; it is active, bold, and sometimes uncomfortable. It asks us to create space for one another, to respect boundaries, and to hold ourselves accountable when our actions are not loving.
In a world where AI systems can perpetuate harm—through biased algorithms, invasive surveillance, or dehumanizing automation—centering love means actively resisting these harms. It means ensuring that AI serves the flourishing of all people, not just the privileged few.
As Ashley Horan powerfully writes, "Universalism doesn't require us, individually, to love every other human; but it does demand that we behave in ways that do not dehumanize or degrade our enemies, even as we actively resist them." Centering love in our engagement with AI means confronting the systems of oppression that these technologies can reinforce, and it means working strategically toward a future where all people can access the freedom, dignity, and thriving that love demands.
Love, as our UU tradition teaches, is not a one-time act. It is a process that unfolds in relationship—what Rebecca Ann Parker calls "a circular motion, in reciprocity with others." Beloved Community, the vision of justice and equity that we hold dear, is built through this kind of love. It is a love that embraces the past, honors the present, and builds toward the future. And in a world increasingly shaped by AI, this kind of love must guide the development and deployment of these technologies.
Dan McKanan offers a powerful metaphor for this work: "Neutrons and protons and electrons want to dance with one another and make atoms. Atoms seek each other out to make molecules." From the very beginning of life, connection has been the source of creation. In the same way, love is what allows us to connect with one another and with the world. It is the force that drives us to build just and compassionate communities, even in the face of technological change.
Risk-Taking Love and AI
But love, as Mykal O. Slack reminds us, is not always easy. It requires risk. It means speaking hard truths, even when it is uncomfortable. It means staying in the work of long-term re-alignment and reconnection, even when conflict arises. In the context of AI, this risk-taking love means challenging the dominant narratives about technology. It means asking difficult questions about who benefits from AI and who is harmed. It means demanding that AI be accountable to the communities it impacts and that it be used as a tool for liberation, not oppression.
Rev. Karen Van Fossan writes that Universalism has always been practical, rooted in life on Earth. From its beginnings, Universalism called for the abolition of systems that oppressed and dehumanized people. Today, the carceral systems that Van Fossan describes—prisons, policing, courts—are increasingly intertwined with AI technologies. Predictive policing algorithms, facial recognition software, and surveillance systems disproportionately target marginalized communities, reinforcing cycles of harm. To center love in our relationship with AI means working to dismantle these systems and build new ones that foster wholeness, repair, and true safety for all.
A Vision of the Future
What might a future look like if we center love in our engagement with AI? Rev. Marco Belletini invites us to "bear witness both to our world as it is, and as Love can imagine it." In this vision, AI is not a tool of oppression but a tool of liberation. It is used to heal the planet, nurture communities, and expand the possibilities of human flourishing. It is developed with care, with the input of diverse communities, and with a commitment to justice. It serves not the few but the many, and it reflects the values of love, interdependence, and compassion.
As Rev. Susan Frederick Gray reminds us, Unitarian Universalism has long taught that no one is ever cast outside of love. This universal love, this unconditional care for all beings, is what must guide our work with AI. It is a love that honors the interdependence of all life, recognizing that the choices we make about AI will impact not just ourselves but future generations and the planet itself.
Shaping the Future
In closing, I invite you to join us in this work. UUs for Responsible AI is a grassroots initiative which, in alliance with AI and Faith, is dedicated to ensuring that AI is developed responsibly and ethically. Together, we can shape a future where AI reflects our deepest values—where it serves the flourishing of all people, nurtures the planet, and expands the possibilities of love in our world.
There is still time to wake up, to grab the wheel, and to guide AI toward a future that aligns with our highest ideals. As Vallor reminds us, "The true soul of technology is not efficiency but generosity; it is the gift of a future." Let us claim that future together, with love at the center.
May we rise to this challenge with love in our hearts, courage in our actions, and a commitment to justice in all that we do.
Amen.
