Riiight.
The man, 45-year-old David Durman, identifies as a humanist and told Religion News Service that he felt being asked to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, as the University of Kentucky reportedly encouraged its employees to utilize, undermined his belief in the importance of the human parts of life and ran counter to his desire to see human flourishing.“The process and work involved in thinking through situations, through my work, through my ethics, through the way I handle other people, is a key component in being able to develop myself as a moral person,” Durman told Religion News Service. “And offloading that labor, regardless of whether it’s taxing or not, is undercutting my ability to be a moral actor.”
In the letter he submitted to the University of Kentucky’s Office of Equal Opportunity as part of the accommodation request, Durman stated, “Substituting automated machine processing for human presence, authentic listening, and personal responsibility in my work directly conflicts with my obligation to uphold human dignity and flourishing as primary.”
What a complete loon.
This might sort-of work if he'd gone for "it's degrading my ability to think clearly and critically and therefore engage with people responsibly". It would at least be somewhat defensible in the case of preventing addiction, if you really feel you lack the self-control not to use AI for literally everything. As it is, he sounds like he thinks that anything that makes his life easier undercuts his moral worth for some reason. Wouldn't it actually be more moral to use AI as much as possible to do the drudge tasks that prevent you from doing the human side of things ? Free you up from editing spreadsheets so you can concentrate on the things that more directly matter ?
I think the religious angle is pretty dumb. If your job requires you to use specific tools, then that's what you've got to do. You don't get a religious exemption from using a tractor because you object to the internal combustion engine, or at least you shouldn't. At the same time, employers shouldn't require you to use any particular tool provided you can demonstrate equal performance using alternatives.
