Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:29:39.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Islam and Artificial Intelligence

from Part I - Religions and AI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2024

By
Yaqub Chaudhary
Edited by
Beth Singler  and
Fraser Watts
Beth Singler
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Fraser Watts
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores issues for Islam in relation to religious themes arising from developments in artificial intelligence (AI), conceived both as a philosophical and scientific quest to understand human intelligence and as a technological enterprise to instrumentalise it for commercial or political purposes. The monotheistic teachings of Islam are outlined to identify themes in AI that relate to central questions in the Islamic context and to addresses nuances of Islamic belief that differentiate it from the other Abrahamic traditions in consideration of AI. This chapter draws together the existing sparse literature on the subject, including notable applications of AI in Islamic contexts, and draws attention to the role of the Muslim world as a channel and expositor of knowledge between the ancient and modern world in the pre-history of AI. The chapter provides foundations for future scholarship on Islam and AI and a resource for wider scholarship on the religious, societal and cultural significance of AI.

Keywords

IslamAIroboticsdigital technologiesAGIconsciousnessmetaphysicsepistemology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Artificial Intelligence , pp. 109 - 128
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alwishah, Ahmed. 2013. “Ibn Sīnā on Floating Man Arguments.” Journal of Islamic Philosophy 9, 32–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-. 1995. “The Nature of Man and the Psychology of the Human Soul,” in Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam, The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization.Google Scholar
Avicenna. 2005. The Metaphysics of the Healing, trans. Michael E. Marmura, Brigham Young University Press.Google Scholar
Berggren, J. Lennart. 2014. “History of Mathematics in the Islamic World: The Present State of the Art [1985],” in From Alexandria, Through Baghdad: Surveys and Studies in the Ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic Mathematical Sciences in Honor of J. L. Berggren, ed. Sidoli, Nathan and Van Brummelen, Glen. Springer.Google Scholar
Druart, Thérèse-Anne. 1983. “Imagination and the Soul: Body Problem in Arabic Philosophy,” in Soul and Body in Husserlian Phenomenology, ed. Tymieniecka, Anna-Teresa. Springer.Google Scholar
Fazi, M. Beatrice. 2019. “Can a Machine Think (Anything New)? Automation beyond Simulation.” AI & Society 34(4), 813–824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutas, Dimitri. 2012. “Avicenna: The Metaphysics of the Rational Soul: Avicenna.” The Muslim World 102(3–4), 417–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Donald R. 1998. Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology: From Philo to al-Jazari – from Alexandria to Diyar Bakr, ed. King, David. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Ashgate.Google Scholar
Jazarī, Ismā‘īl ibn al-Razzāz al-. 1974. The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices: Kitāb Fī Ma‘rifat al-Ḥiyal al-Handasiyya, trans. Donald Routledge Hill. Reidel.Google Scholar
Lagrandeur, Kevin. 2017. Androids and Intelligent Networks in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Artificial Slaves. Routledge.Google Scholar
Marmura, Michael E. 1986. “Avicenna’s ‘Flying Man’ in Context,” Monist 69(June), 383–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, Kathleen Malone. 1994. “The Alchemical Creation of Life (Takwin) and Other Concepts of Genesis in Medieval Islam,” PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania. www.proquest.com/docview/304111155/abstract/152D2663744940E3PQ/1.Google Scholar
Popova, Biliana. 2020. “Islamic Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence: Epistemological Arguments.” Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science 55(4), 977–995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, Franz. 1970. Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Truitt, E. R. 2015. Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art. University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×