A Founding Member of UUs for Responsible AI, Ron Roth and I teamed up three years ago with AI and Faith to bring the “AI conversation” into UU congregations. Joining in hosting Ayudha Puja services last year at UU Boca Raton and UU Saratoga, we’re again encouraging UUs to reflect on our changing relationships with our tools and machines.

You’ll find below the sermon Ron delivered at UU Boca Raton on October 13, drawing substantially on the draft that ChatGPT produced by merging the perspective of University of Edinburgh philosophy professor Shannon Vallor in The AI Mirror with that of UU thought leaders who have publishe essays in Love at the Center.

“The celebration of tools and skills in Ayudha Puja acknowledges the diverse ways individuals express themselves and contribute to the world,” Ron says. “Whether through artistic creation, scientific innovation, or service to others, the ritual honors the unique paths people take in their search for truth and meaning.”

“Ayudha Puja provides a framework for understanding work not just as a means to an end but as a vital part of our spiritual and ethical development,” he continues. “It encourages us to approach our work with intention, responsibility, and a commitment to using our talents for the greater good.”

Dan Forbush

Love as a Strategy:
Tactics Toward a Humane Future

Ron Roth, Service Leader

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Boca Raton

Sunday, October 13, 2024

It's been another explosive year for AI. We have had billions of conversations and interactions with AI-powered technologies, I would guess most without our knowledge or understanding. While digital assistants like Google's assistant and Apple's Siri are increasingly imbued with the powers of generative AI, we are faced with the increased risks and benefits of deeper integration with our tools.

"We are indeed machines of a biological sort, like all living things," Shannon Vallor asserts. "But we are among those rare machines who make ourselves."

This profound insight becomes central to our exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to enhance and preserve democracy. In the context of Unitarian Universalist (UU) values and a conscious centering of love, we have an opportunity to shape AI technologies that embody the best aspects of human creativity and ethical growth. As we envision a future where AI is intertwined with democracy, we must ask: How do we choose to make ourselves and our societies better through this technology?

How do we transform our "machines" not merely to optimize, but to love?

Vallor reminds us that our technologies are not opposed to our freedom; instead, they are expressions of it. Human nature, she argues, is not at odds with artificiality; rather, the artificial manifests our open nature and makes it concrete. From the till and the axe to the circuit and the transistor, technologies have always been “engines of autofabrication.” In the age of AI, this autofabrication is now at a juncture—will it diminish or expand our humanity?

Rev. Emeritus Marco Belletini at First UU Columbus speaks to the importance of "bearing witness both to our world as it is, and as Love can imagine it." This act of imagination, coupled with Vallor's concept of autofabrication, allows us to envision AI technologies as extensions of our collective intention to create a just and compassionate society. In this way, AI expands and augments our intentions to magnify empathy in a peaceful world. I know. It seems rather naive in a world bent on extremism and endless wars. But aided by AI, we could imagine and embrace a future that holds love at the center.

Our freedom lies in our capacity to choose the ends to which these technologies serve. Vallor's assets that "the true soul of technology is not efficiency but generosity; it is the gift of a future." This aligns closely with the ninth UUA president Rev. Susan Frederick Gray's description of Beloved Community as a society "that would nurture in its conditions the quality of love and care." To achieve this, we must consciously steer AI away from being merely mirrors of the dominant values of the current economic order. Instead, we must create machines as tools that expand the possibilities for love, care, and community.

Connie Goodbread, serving as the Director of the UUA’s Hope for Us Conflict Engagement Team, gives us a reflection that "Love is not sentimental... Because it is the Love that holds us all, there needs to be space for each of us and boundaries around behaviors that are not loving." She provides a critical ethical framework for AI development. Love, when placed at the center of technology, demands both inclusivity and accountability. AI must be intentionally designed to foster relationships rooted in justice, where each voice is heard, and each individual has a place. This means creating algorithms that value diversity, equity, and compassion above profit or popularity, and that actively dismantle structures of exclusion.

For example, consider an AI-driven deliberative democracy platform. Such a platform could be used to facilitate civic dialogue, offering tools that encourage respectful debate while preventing harmful behaviors. Here, we see Vallor's idea of "setting goals for ourselves and hitching our powerful AI engines to them."

When designed with Goodbread's vision of boundaries and love, AI becomes a tool to uphold the covenantal values of Unitarian Universalism, ensuring every individual’s voice contributes to the democratic process. It may sound scary to ask a machine to love for us, but that is not what we seek. We love or hate with whatever tools he hold in our hands.

Moving Beyond Technological Somnambulism

Shannon Vallor writes, "We aren't tied to our seats. We can grab the wheel." She urges us to wake from "technological somnambulism"—the state of sleepwalking through technological change without critically engaging with its implications. Love is the force that will awaken us, encouraging us to steer AI toward a future where technology serves humanity's deepest values.

In this sense, Vallor's argument aligns with Rev. Rebecca Ann Parker. Rebecca Ann Parker is coauthor of the critically-acclaimed Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and The Search for What Saves Us and author of Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now? An ordained United Methodist minister in dual fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association, she is president and professor of theology at Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union. She describes love as "a creative activity, a combination of elements that together yields a transformation." We must embrace our role as creators, taking the wheel and guiding the course of AI development to reflect our highest ideals.

Rev. Ashley Horan, appointed this year as the UUA’s VP for Programs and Ministries, emphasizes that true love is not passive; it is an active, powerful force that demands we confront injustice. AI technologies, if developed with love as a guiding force, could play an essential role in exposing and dismantling systemic inequalities. For example, AI can help identify racial biases in hiring practices, create transparency in policing data, and ensure equitable access to resources. By actively resisting the tendencies of technology to reinforce existing power structures, we embody Vallor's call to "coordinate the operation and steering of those engines" in a way that aligns with democratic and justice-centered norms.

Building the Beloved Community Through AI

Dan McKanan is the Ralph Waldo Emerson UUA Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School. In his book Identifying the Image of God, he reflects on the interdependence of life, noting that "From the very beginning of life on earth, organisms found creative ways to connect." In the context of AI, this interdependence can be cultivated to build stronger, more connected communities. Imagine AI systems that support community-driven initiatives—platforms that connect volunteers to causes, help match resources to those in need, and enable localized decision-making. Such technologies could embody Vallor’s concept of “engines of autofabrication” that enhance rather than diminish our collective freedom and flourishing.

AI can also be used to encourage empathy, as described by Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, the President of the UU Service Committee. She imagines love as "a force that frees us, each and all, to the fullness of our humanity." This resonates deeply with Vallor's vision of AI being “reconceived as a tool” to perform services that foster compassion and nurture communities. AI could facilitate initiatives that provide emotional support to those in distress, promote restorative justice practices, and enable conflict resolution. In this sense, AI becomes a practical tool for the cultivation of what Morn calls "community care."

AI and the Struggle for Justice

Rev. Karen Van Fossan draws on the abolitionist roots of Universalism, describing abolition as a practice that "fosters wholeness and repair." AI has the potential to be a force for abolition—abolishing punitive systems that oppress and replacing them with restorative, compassionate approaches to justice. Imagine AI that helps allocate social services in a way that supports, rather than punishes, vulnerable individuals; or AI that reduces the need for carceral systems by helping communities develop preventive, supportive networks. This aligns with Vallor's notion that technologies must not be used to "turn those engines against the very freedom that makes them possible."

In a democratic society, AI designed for abolition is an AI that serves all people, particularly those who have been historically marginalized. It is an AI that embodies Cornel West’s assertion, cited by Van Fossan, that "justice is what love looks like in public." Such an AI would amplify community voices, provide equitable access to opportunities, and actively dismantle the systems of oppression or disinformation that threaten democratic participation.

As we contemplate the future of Unitarian Universalism, we draw parallels between our current technological moment and the spiritual practices of our ancestors. UUs for Responsible AI has created a platform for furthering the AI conversation within our faith. It are dedicated to educating UU congregations and individuals about the profound impact of artificial intelligence and neurotechnologies on society and the world. It aims to foster thoughtful dialogue rooted in UU principles of justice, equity, and compassion while promoting the ethical and responsible development of AI.

Through workshops, advocacy, and partnerships, we emphasize how these technologies can serve humanity and address critical moral and societal challenges. We recognize the need for immediate intervention and invite UU communities to engage with these innovations in ways that uphold the dignity of all people and care for our planet.

I invite you today to visit Smartacus.com and engage with these visionaries in discussions to create a future that reflects our shared values and covenant.

Generosity as the True Soul of Technology

As Vallor concludes, "The true soul of technology is not efficiency but generosity; it is the gift of a future." AI, when developed with love at the center, has the potential to be an extraordinary gift—a means to create a more just, compassionate, and democratic society. This is a future where technology serves the needs of all, protects the vulnerable, and enables communities to thrive. Love, as articulated by UU ministers, provides both the ethical compass and the visionary goal for AI development.

By rejecting technological somnambulism and embracing our role as creators, we can "grab the wheel" and ensure that AI serves as a force for good, one that embodies the values of justice, compassion, and interdependence. Our capacity to love, as Vallor and our UU ministers suggest, is not an abstract ideal but a tangible power that can and must shape the technologies we create. Through love, we transform AI from an engine of efficiency into an engine of freedom, community, and hope—a tool that helps us make ourselves and our societies into something new, something better, something that truly reflects the image of the good we aspire to bring into the world.