FAQs
About the Commission
ContactWe currently have 8 Commissioners, who come from a range of different backgrounds and faith perspectives: Prof Kate Devlin, Silkie Carlo, Jeremy Peckham, Graham Budd, Zeshan Zafar, Rev Dr Sam Wells, Rabbi Dr Harris Bor, and Kishan Manocha OBE.
You can read more about them, here.
The Commission works to ensure that human values are preserved in the design, development and deployment of AI in a way which affirms the dignity of our shared humanity and benefits all people.
We aim to do this by:
- Convening different faith perspectives and civil society leaders to discuss issues raised by artificial intelligence through the lens of shared human values
- Engaging policymakers, government, and technology companies to consider particular concerns and harms raised by faith & civil society
- Informing faith communities and key leaders in civil society of the outcomes of these conversations around the risks and opportunities of AI.
You can read our full mission statement here.
Most of our Commissioners are based in London, with the exceptions of Zeshan Zafar, who is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Kishan Manocha, who is based in Poland.
The Commission was officially formed in March 2024, following a series of informal meetings and gatherings, both online in October 2023 ahead of the Bletchley Park AI Summit and in December 2023 at Methodist Central Hall. The Commission’s inaugural meeting was held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024.
We’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch with us over email at info@ai-commission.com
You can sign up for our monthly newsletter through the website to stay updated with the latest from the Commission. You can also follow us at @aifaith_civil, and on Linkedin.
About AI
More resourcesWhilst there are many definitions of artificial intelligence, it can be generally described as a broad term referring to a machine capable of acting in an intelligent manner. It is often used to refer to computer programs that can perform a range of tasks like identifying a brain tumour from an MRI scan or recognise a face in a crowd from surveillance cameras.
Algorithms are sets of rules or instructions that tell a computer how to perform a specific task. They’re the building blocks of all AI systems, and are behind their ability to perform a wide range of functions, including natural language processing, image recognition, and more.
A DNN is a multi-layer architecture of connected nodes, very much like neurons in the brain, with programmable weightings assigned to each of the connections. Vast data sets are used to “train” the neural network, by adjusting the weightings so that after training the output is closer to simulating an intelligent human outcome.
One of the most powerful applications of DNN technology so far has been Large Language Models which are trained using human-created language data to predict the next likely word in a sentence and are used by chatbots such as Open AI’s Chat GPT.
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to significantly impact all aspects of our lives and raise fundamental questions about human agency, identity, and the future of society. However, the current discussions about AI ethics often involve only a small group of people, neglecting the perspectives of civil society and faith communities.
We believe including these voices in the conversation about AI ethics is crucial. That's why the Commission aims to amplify these perspectives to ensure that our common humanity is respected in the future of AI.