Safeguarding meaning in the age of AI: The faith

In their 2021 book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher raised questions about the future of humanity in an Artificial Technology (AI)-driven world where humans become ever more redundant in the workforce, privacy can be easily violated, and biased input data yields biased outcomes, but also about a much deeper and philosophical issue regarding how AI will challenge the primacy of human reason, writes Dr Bailey Schwab, British research fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.

This is because for all of history, humans have sought to understand their role in the world and the nature of reality itself—this is what philosophers have meant by the concept of metaphysics. Since the Enlightenment, or what has been called the Age of Reason, ushered in by Descartes when he said “I think therefore I am,” humans have considered our reason—that is the ability of our own selves to think, comprehend, solve problems, and articulate the solution—as opposed to just divine revelation, to be the instrument through which humanity can understand reality.

However, the increasing use and dependence on AI by more and more people is leading humanity to outsource its thinking and reasoning abilities to AI to assist them in their daily lives, upon which many people are becoming slowly more dependent; dependency is even being felt in the domain of relationships where people are increasingly asking AI for advice on dating. By doing so, not only is the ability to reason and think for oneself being slowly eroded, but so is the ability to find meaning and purpose as a human being through one’s own reason and sense of self. As the technology gets more sophisticated with the passage of time, the risk of human capability to be surpassed across many domains thus leaves humanity needing to redefine our role in the world.

If human-to-human interactions fizzle out and are replaced by machines and systems, what will it mean to experience life as a human? How does our understanding of the notion of a just war change if AI-enabled precision targeting on a massive scale is how states fight against one another, as we have witnessed recently? If people see the solution to their loneliness as conversing with an AI, can we consider this a friendship? What are the implications of young people asking AI what their religious faith says about suffering, martyrdom, or duty? However one answers these questions, and there are many more to be answered about the potential effects of AI on culture, humanity, and history, one thing is clear: to ensure the AI revolution does not downgrade the sanctity of human dignity, those responsible for designing and producing the technologies, and those who have taken it upon themselves to nurture man’s deeper philosophical, religious, and spiritual needs, must work together.

We have recently seen a rising consciousness, in this regard. For example, on May 25, 2026, Pope Leo published his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas”, concerning “safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence,” which was 135 years to the day after Pope Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum—“the document that gave the industrial revolution its moral framework.” As Co-Chair of the Faith-AI Covenant Initiative and former UK Minister for Internet Safety and Security Joanna Shields pointed out, “Rerum Novarum arrived decades after the industrial revolution began. By then, communities had already been hollowed out. Workers exploited. Children had already paid the price of progress that was not designed with them in mind.”

This logic underpins the Faith-AI Covenant Initiative which is bringing tech and faith leaders together in an effort to ensure AI is created and developed ethically. Under the auspices of the Interfaith Alliance of Safer Communities (IAFSC), the Faith-AI Covenant Initiative, whose first report will be launched in Abu Dhabi in 2027 following a series of roundtables around the world, says it “will develop shared principles and voluntary pledges that reflect a dual imperative: advancing technical progress while upholding the sanctity of human dignity”.

Emerging from the United Arab Emirates’ distinctive national experience, the Faith-AI Covenant, co-chaired by Dana Humaid, exemplifies an Emirati vision in which technological innovation is guided by religious values as a way to safeguard man’s search for meaning, affirming that technological progress that is fundamentally transformative for human life can only be sustainable when coupled with a sense of moral responsibility.

The UAE has effectively positioned itself to play a leading role in this endeavour. Over recent decades, it has demonstrated a notable ability to balance rapid modernisation with social cohesion, economic dynamism with cultural continuity, and technological ambition with respect for moral and religious values. For example, the UAE is home to more than 200 nationalities, and has, therefore, cultivated one of the world’s most diverse yet stable societies, which is underpinned by a longstanding commitment to coexistence, respect for the religious beliefs of the original inhabitants and all religious communities within the country, and interfaith dialogue. Moreover, the UAE was the first to country to appoint a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in 2017, and its ambition to become the world’s first fully AI-native government by 2027 demonstrates the scale of the country’s technological ambitions and the responsibility that comes along with that. Evidently, the country is well-suited to spearhead such an initiative.

In turn, this experience is producing a governance model that recognises innovation not as an end in itself, but as a tool for societal stability. Thus, the Faith-AI Covenant reflects not just an Emirati initiative, but a potential global vision for the future of AI where innovation serves humanity as another one of its tools while remaining guided by ethical principles.

As the world grapples with the profound existential and philosophical implications of AI as it alters how man reasons, experiences human and spiritual relationships, and fights wars, we stand at a crossroads. The lessons of previous technologies and periods of transformation where the consequences of the technologies were understood only too late, reminds us that humanity cannot afford to be reactive. It must be proactive to ensure those building the AI systems do not let those systems be used against our own, most human interests.

Opinions expressed are purely those of the author and not endorsed by EU Reporter. The article was unsolicited by EU Reporter, and the author guarantees the truthfulness of the contents of the article. No payment was made by EU Reporter to the author

Commission imposes interim measures on Meta to preserve free access to WhatsApp for rival AI assistants

Russia’s Gulf pivot: How Oman Is emerging as a strategic partner for Moscow’s post-sanctions economy

Security realignment inevitable in Middle East after Netanyahu-Trump's war

'Ukraine does not need investment out of sympathy': Seyar Kurshutov on the rational case for early entry

The Third International Maqom Art Forum and the New Uzbekistan