Constructing the Ark of Wisdom in the Age of AI

In 2016, when Google’s AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol in four out of five games of Go, there was another man who was part of the game. This was Aja Huang, an employee of DeepMind, who placed the stones for AlphaGo. Huang, of course, understood the game, but the strategies were composed by DeepMind’s artificial intelligence (AI). Suppose that technology further advanced to the degree that AI and Huang operated together with Huang having primary agency. One might say that Huang’s intelligence of playing Go increased and increased for the better, since he would win more games than others. Now suppose that we do the same for human spirituality. If we use AI to “enhance” our spirituality, could we consider it an enhancement and could we actually harvest fruits from such an enhancement? In other words, what are the potential benefits and hazards of interacting with AI in our pursuit of becoming a spiritual person (1 Cor 2:14–15)?

This paper focuses on one aspect of AI, seeing AI as a technology for extending our minds and moral enhancement. It also focuses on the aspect of virtue and morality in spiritual living. Here I argue for a cautious partnership in the interaction between AI and spirituality: while AI may indeed provide enhancement of our spirituality, there are also risks that come with such an enhancement. To do so, I first consider AI in terms of human enhancement. I then look at Hugh of St. Victor’s construction of the ark of wisdom, which underscores the importance of reading and meditation for conducting virtuous actions and, ultimately, reaching perfection. I conclude by delineating what AI can help with and what AI cannot do for spirituality.  

The first section examines some of the key arguments in AI ethics literature that underscore the benefits and risks of AI for human enhancement. I focus on AI as extensions of our minds.[1] Here we may view AI not as autonomous but as that which enhances our capacities.[2] More narrowly, I articulate the arguments for and against moral enhancement. While some, for example, have argued that AI can assist moral actions,[3] others have argued that AI can lead to the crisis of “moral patiency”—that we become moral patients because AI comprises our moral agency.[4] I suggest that these arguments seem to operate with a key premise, namely, the sufficiency of knowledge—and perhaps even fast, accessible knowledge—for virtuous living.

The second section considers the spirituality of a 12th c. writer, Hugh of St. Victor to articulate the importance of memory in one’s spirituality for virtuous living. Here I focus on two of his works, Didascalion and Noah’s Ark.[5] Hugh helpfully reflects on not only our growth in understanding but also our growth in practical living, both of which are necessary for achieving perfection. In the Didascalion, Hugh highlights the components for our studying: aptitude that gathers wisdom, memory that preserves wisdom, the practice of our aptitude through reading and meditation, and discipline by which knowledge and moral behaviour are combined. One important factor is memory. For Hugh, it is important that we gather wisdom in our “chest of memory.” Hugh in Noah’s Ark makes a similar case to show how we must construct an ark of wisdom, where one progresses from knowledge, to works, to virtue, and finally to Jesus Christ. Important in this building of the ark and the restoration for perfection is that there is an internalization of what we have read,[6] where such an internalization is crucial for virtuous living. He says in Didascalion that “we find many who study but few who are wise,” because there is the lack of memorization.

The third section articulates that AI, while helpful with gathering knowledge, cannot replace the act of memorization, thereby internalization. In addition, this section builds on Hugh’s notion of the ark of wisdom by emphasizing the notion of concreteness of spirituality. We not only internalize texts, but those texts we internalize are internalized within the person who has lived experience in this world.[7] If Hugh’s spirituality as depicted in the ark of wisdom is sound, then it follows that while AI can enhance spirituality, it only does so to a limited degree. While AI and spirituality should remain partners, they must remain partners by delineating key practices of spirituality.

[1] This notion comes from a piece that became a classic in this field: Andy Clark and David Chalmers, “The Extended Mind,” Analysis 58 (1998): 7–19.

[2] Sven Nyholm, “Artificial Intelligence and Human Enhancement: Can AI Technologies Make Us More (Artificially) Intelligent?” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 33 (2023): 76–88.

[3] E.g., Francisco Lara and Jan Deckers, “Aritifical Intelligence as a Socratic Assistant for Moral Enhancement,” Neuroethics 13 (2020): 275–287.

[4] E.g., John Danaher, “The Rise of Robots and the Crisis of Moral Patiency,” AI & Society 34 (2019):129–136.

[5] Hugh of St. Victor, The Didascalion of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts, trans. Jerome Taylor (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Hugh of St. Victor, Hugh of Saint-Victor: Selected Spiritual Writings, trans. a Religious of C.S.M.V. with an introduction by Aelred Squire (New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1962).

[6] Mary J. Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) examines some of these matters in premodern Christianity.

[7] On the local nature of spirituality, Bernard McGinn, “Spirituality Confronts its Future,” Spiritus 5 (2005): 88–96.