# How would the major religions approach sentient AI's?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-major-religions-approach-sentient-ais/813833>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 8, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-major-religions-approach-sentient-ais/813833 "2018-05-08T23:45:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-major-religions-approach-sentient-ais/813833/21 "2018-05-10T02:08:08Z")

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Do these AI have money or property to be conned from them? Then some religion will offer them made-up salvation to get at that. Once AI get any kind of money or property and manage to keep it, there will be some would-be “pastor” to this new “flock.”

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**Author:** ![Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delicious)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-major-religions-approach-sentient-ais/813833/22 "2018-05-10T06:32:46Z")

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I suppose you could check it’s config file, if hasSoul = TRUE then you’re in business.

What if, rather than an AI built from scratch, you use the sci-fi ‘mind copied onto a computer’ method? Would a soul be transferred that way? Would it make a difference if the copying process killed the original person?

I doubt any current religion would allow for copy/pasting souls or recovering them from less-sinful backups. Given enough human acting AIs, one of them will come up with something religiony that applies to them though…probably fairly unique due to their potential immortality.

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**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-major-religions-approach-sentient-ais/813833/23 "2018-05-10T10:20:21Z")

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> [@Crane](#):
>
> I seriously doubt that any stored program computer can become ‘sentient’. The religious community would most likely simply challenge such a claim.

I doubt it too, but let’s speculate.

Even if they were endowed with sentience, I don’t think robots would be regarded as persons if they all had an identical personality. If what made a robot sentient were its software, then any hardware running with the same software would show the same ‘personality’: a washing machine, a tv, a 3D printer, anything.

Robots will be regarded as persons only if they show distinct personalities, that can develop in time and which are particular to specific hardware. If this happens, robots will become fervent believers and churches around the world will turn into the biggest sponsors of this industry. Unfortunately, automated fundamentalism will probably make the planet an inhospitable place for humans.

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