In this month’s Future Tense Fiction story, Andrew D. Hudson looks at how artificial intelligence could support, and distort, faith.
about how technology and science will change our lives—publishes a story on a theme. The theme for October–December 2019: artificial intelligence.David had heard this one before, but he needed a job. He folded his hands in his lap and summoned the patience he’d learned sitting through Talmudic debates. He waved for Aiden Shure, Town of Our Own’s CEO, to continue.
Aiden chuckled. “I’m actually describing the problem we’re hiring to solve. Our customer service chatbot keeps getting, well … anti-Semitic. We field complaints from many lonely, obsessive people. Towns often subscribe to our service to keep the whack jobs from bothering real municipal employees.” David winced at the ableist slur. “We want our system to learn from users, speak their language as we say, but now … ”“They haven’t worked. We aren’t talking naughty words or bad attitude.
The job was, he had to admit, a pretty good fit for his lumpy skill set. So good that he was surprised MBAiden, as his co-workers called the boorish CEO, had thought of it. David prodded SheaAnne the HR manager until she spilled that the idea of searching for someone with rabbinical training had come from Mark, TOOO’s pet intellectual.
“Sounds like a fairy tale romance.” David swirled the dregs of his Lone Star, which he was determined to learn to like. “I’ve been thinking about your project,” Mark said. “I know Aiden hasn’t found you your next job yet, so I have a proposal.” David hadn’t been in the industry long enough to know if this idea was very savvy or very stupid. He nursed the artisanal vodka tonic Mark had bought him.
They settled on Decen.cy, snapping up a domain name from Cyprus. To David, the name seemed neutral, pleasant—just like they hoped A.I.s could be. Many clients didn’t care much what decision Decen.cy came to, but shielded themselves with Decen.cy’s virtuous reputation. It was a game of appearances. David and Mark soon learned to emphasize their religious backgrounds. David came to business meetings in a dark suit, a yarmulke sticking out of his pocket. Mark based his attire off the comic book: white jeans, black shirt, white clerical collar. They had a good cop, bad cop dynamic. David played somber, pious, and authoritative.
“God’s seen to it that we’ve grown in recent years, and we’ve acquired some real estate concerns. Intentional communities where our congregation members can live as neighbors in resisting the ills of the world. We use TOOO to manage them. My eldest just moved into our newest development, and she loves TOOO, calls it ‘so polite!’ Which brings me to why I’m down here.
“I can’t believe he went with the ‘precocious toddler’ cliché,” David fumed, five hours and two drinks later. “You know this guy’s church is just an idea laundry for neoreactionary politics, right? Those ‘intentional communities’ have got to be Benedict Option militia compounds.” Mark was right that Decen.cy needed to take on significant new business to keep growing, and David still had student loans to pay off. So, despite David’s reservations, they began to explore the FireHaven project. As Mark had suspected, they had competition. They weren’t the only A.I. grooming firm anymore—or even the only one in Austin. Teller shopped around, soliciting bids from Transcend.
David took another gulp of wine. “I don’t think this is about helping people be virtuous. This is about control. Teller wants his own A.I.-policed theocracy.” Mark tugged the tab of his clerical collar out of his pocket and worried it in his hands. He had always played the apostate, let David be the devout one. David realized then that the truth was quite reversed. Mark was a believer who pretended to be an atheist. David was an atheist who too often pretended to be a believer.“But, Mark, I didn’tto be a rabbi. I was terrified of leading a synagogue and counseling people in crisis.
The following year, David founded a new company, Thought.fl. He didn’t intend a rivalry, but the gossip sites still ran that angle. Two poster boys of the hot new faith-oriented A.I. movement, fallen out and gunning for each other. Soon, however, they were old news, crowded out by dozens of new startups entering the space. There was EyeOnHigh, Ho.ly, BelieveBot, FaithHome, Pio.us, Dhar.ma, Kar.ma, GuardianAIngel. Even the tech industry giants got in on the game.
Becca took a job in Vancouver and asked David to leave Thought.fl to follow her one more time. It was her way, he thought, of giving him a way out of a situation that was making him miserable. But when she left, he stayed in Austin. “Not feeling very ecclesiastical tonight,” Mark said. “Been trying for years to get this Vatican contract, but today we heard they’re going with in-house developers instead. There goes my shot at sainthood.”
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