As people embrace ChatGPT and other large language models, University of Michigan anthropologist Webb Keane says it's easy for people to imbue AI with a human, or even god-like, authority.
Keane studies the role of religion in people's ordinary lives, ethics and morality. But he's also interested in how people anthropomorphize inanimate objects, particularly objects that appear to use human language or language systems in the way we do. Keane explains the ways in which people may start giving moral power to artificial intelligence—but may find that AI is simply a mirror of the people and corporations who have built it.
To read more, click here.