Associate Professor Stephen Scharper was interviewed for the Medium article AI, Ethics and the Earth: Professor Stephen Scharper on Technology's Spiritual Reckoning. "For Professor Scharper at the University of Toronto (U of T) Mississauga (UTM), the most urgent question is not what AI can do, but what it is doing to us—to our planet, our sense of morality and our relationship with the sacred."
"In an era of climate anxiety and technological advancement, the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) frequently centers on productivity, effectiveness, and innovation. But for Professor Scharper at the University of Toronto (U of T) Mississauga (UTM), the most urgent question is not what AI can do, but what it is doing to us—to our planet, our sense of morality and our relationship with the sacred.
As an anthropology professor at UTM jointly appointed to the School of the Environment, Professor Scharper’s career has been dedicated to the intersection of religion, ecology, and ethics. Yet today, his concerns have turned to a new frontier—AI. As technology rapidly evolves, a new question emerges: What happens when humanity entrusts machines?
Professor Scharper begins the conversation with reference to sacred stories, including the Hebrew prophets, Latin American liberation theologians, and the Catholic priest Thomas Berry, who called himself a “geologian.” Professor Scharper explains that Berry viewed the universe itself as a revelation. Berry noted that while so much attention has been given to scripture, people often overlook the first book of Revelation: the Earth."