Humanist Gets Religious Exemption from Using AI at Work

A research administrator at the University of Kentucky objected on religious grounds to the pressure the university was putting on him and other employees to rely on AI in their work. With the help of the American Humanist Association (AHA), he was able to secure a Title VII exemption from using the technology. David Durman “felt he was being asked to offload his thinking to tools like Microsoft Teams Copilot, Claude and ChatGPT bots in his day-to-day work. That felt like a violation of his beliefs,” reports Religion News Service (RNS). Durman is quoted in a press release from the AHA explaining his beliefs and how they relate to AI: As a Humanist, promoting the wellbeing and flourishing of humanity is paramount to how I live my life, and I believe that our capacity to think and reason for ourselves is worth protecting… When it comes to AI technology — particularly generative AI and LLMs, it’s clear to me that the existence and use of these technologies run contrary to human…