U of Kentucky Says Humanist Admin Exempt From AI

A University of Kentucky employee has received a religious exemption from having to use artificial intelligence tools to do his job.

David Durman, a research administrator and avowed humanist, pursued the exemption after the university began asking employees to integrate AI into their workflows. As AI-powered technology has become more mainstream over the past few years, higher education institutions are increasingly investing in them in the hope that they will enhance teaching, learning and other university operations.  

But Durman saw UK’s requirement to use AI as a violation of humanist doctrine, which lists critical thinking and moral responsibility as two of its core values.

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“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 last week. “And offloading that labor, regardless of whether it’s taxing or not, is undercutting my ability to be a moral actor.” 

With support from the American Humanist Association, he pursued an AI use exemption under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which “requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for an applicant or employee whose sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance conflicts with a work requirement.” The university granted the exemption in September. 

Durman told RNS that his exemption request was inspired in part by Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist software engineer in North Carolina who has also received a religious exemption from her employer.

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