Iran is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to assist its religious seminaries in an initiative that is centered in the city of Qom, home to Shia clerics, according to the Financial Times newspaper.
Qom’s seminaries hope that advanced technology can help parse Islamic texts faster and allow religious rulings, known as fatwas, to keep pace with Iran’s rapidly evolving society, added the newspaper.
“Robots can’t replace senior clerics, but they can be a trusted assistant that can help them issue a fatwa in five hours instead of 50 days,” said Mohammad Ghotbi, who heads a state-linked organization in Qom that encourages the growth of technology businesses.
The city’s leading AI research center, the Noor Computer Center for Islamic Sciences Research, is affiliated with the seminary and has access to its centuries-old scrolls and other ancient data sources that could be fed into algorithms.
Ghotbi affirmed the approach, arguing that the clergy should not oppose the desire of Iranians to share in global technological advances. “Today’s society favors acceleration and progress,” he said.
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has also urged clergy to pay more attention to the possibilities of AI.
“The seminary must get involved in using modern, progressive technology and artificial intelligence,” head of the Iranian seminaries Alireza Arafi said in July.
As with any revolutionary technology, AI presents both opportunities and challenges. Traditional societies are likely to face greater challenges in harnessing AI.
An analysis by Oxford Islamic Studies suggests that interpretations of religious teachings require not just linguistic knowledge but also historical, sociological, and theological understanding. There’s a concern that AI might oversimplify or misinterpret nuanced religious teachings.
According to experts at the Brookings Institution, one of the most significant challenges of integrating AI into traditional societies is the potential for cultural and moral erosion associated with it.
