What's God got to do with it? The case for faith in an age of AI

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Soulaima Gourani, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Happioh: Eighty, eighty-five percent of the world's population associate themselves in one way or another to have a faith or associate with a religion. If you want anything to be accomplished, in finance, climate, technology, the list goes on and on, you need to know how to communicate and cooperate with faith communities.

Robin Pomeroy, host, Radio Davos: Welcome to Radio Davos, the podcast from the World Economic Forum that looks at the biggest challenges and how we might solve them. This week - what’s God got to do with it?

Gopal Patel, Co-Founder and President, FutureFaith: There are two forces that have shaped the history of the world, and those are commerce and faith. Historically those were deeply interlinked with each other and we live in a time now where they're increasingly delinked and separate from each other.

Robin Pomeroy: Some might say ‘thank God for that’. But not these members of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Faith in Action, who say we’re missing out if we are not engaging with faiths.

Gopal Patel: Faith is a normal thing. Faith is something that most of us have, and if we don't use it in a healthy way and in a way that shows up positively in the world, it will be co-opted by the extremes and that will cause further division.

Robin Pomeroy: Follow Radio Davos wherever you get podcasts, or visit wef.ch/podcasts where you will also find our sister programmes, Meet the Leader and Agenda Dialogues.

I’m Robin Pomeroy at the World Economic Forum, and with this look at the role of faith in the world…

Gopal Patel: How to bring the old thinking and that wisdom into the current context is really the opportunity and challenge right now.

Robin Pomeroy: This is Radio Davos.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils are small groups of experts from around the world who get together over a two-year period to consider some of the most important issues facing us all. The idea is to bring people together from a range of backgrounds and outlooks to seek new ways of doing things. There are Global Future Councils on technology, on the economy, on health and also, I discovered when attending a meeting of all the GFCs, one on religion.

The Global Future Council on Faith in Action is such a lively group, it has even made its own podcast called Faith in Action. To get a feel for what they do, here’s the intro to one of their podcast episodes.

Gopal Patel: Over the past 25 years, faith communities around the world have shown remarkable leadership on climate and nature, from the Assisi Declarations to Laudato Sì, from local congregations to global coalitions. But at a time of polarization, misinformation, and mounting geopolitical tension, can this momentum be sustained? And can faith ensure that climate and biodiversity don't fade from public attention when they're needed the most? I'm Golpal Patel.

Soulaima Gourani: And I am Soulaima Gourani. You are listening to Faith in Action, an independent podcast by members of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Faith in Action.

Robin Pomeroy: I caught up with those two hosts of that podcast, Faith in Action, to find out why they’re talking about religion, and where their discussions are heading.

Gopal Patel: My name is Golpal Patel. I'm the co-founder and president of Future Faith.

Soulaima Gourani: My name is Soulaima Gourani and I'm the CEO and co-founder of Happioh.

Robin Pomeroy: It's great to see both of you. And I know you're both podcasters as well, because you're making a podcast about the work of this Global Future Council. Am I right in saying it's about a dozen people?

Soulaima Gourani: Yes. That's about right?

Robin Pomeroy: So as we record this to listeners and viewers, they've stepped away from that to to record this conversation with me. Grateful for that. We'll get you back in there as soon as we can.

Right, let's get started. Why is it important to be discussing religion and faith?

Soulaima Gourani: Well, if I may, you know, not a lot of people associate the World Economic Forum with faith or religion, right? It's business and politics. But think about this, just for a second. Eighty, eighty-five percent of the world's population associate themselves in one way or another to have a faith or associate with a religion. If you want anything to be accomplished, in finance, climate, technology, the list goes on and on, you need to know how to communicate and cooperate with faith communities.

Robin Pomeroy: Gopal, is that your motivation?

Gopal Patel: Yeah, I think one way to look at it is that there are two forces that have shaped the history of the world, and those are commerce and faith. And historically those were deeply interlinked with each other and we live in a time now where they're increasingly delinked and separate from each other.

And so the Faith in Action podcast, part of its work is to think about how do faith and values inform our economic systems, but also a whole range of other issues.

And ultimately at the end of the day, as Soulaima said, over 85% of the world population belongs to a faith or values tradition. At most of us, when it's moments of crisis, moments of joy or happiness, there's a spiritual spark that animates all of us. And I think we're trying to ensure that that doesn't get lost in the conversations that we have when it comes to global issues.

Robin Pomeroy: So I want to talk to you about some of these issues that you're discussing, which are broadly in three categories: climate change, economics, and artificial intelligence. Particularly really interesting artificial intelligence. We'll get back to that. Before we do, tell us something about kind of your your day jobs then. Gopal, what is Future Faith?

Gopal Patel: So Future Faith is a new think tank that that I've founded with a number of colleagues over the last couple of years. And what it aims to do is bring faith-based leaders, organisations and other institutions into partnership with the private sector, other civil society actors to address a whole range of global environmental concerns.

So at the moment, our focus is on working with faith actors on ocean conservation, land restoration, and biodiversity. And we're seeing that when we bring faith into partnership with these other stakeholders around these issues, scale can be I mean impact can be scaled significantly. So that's the work of Future Faith, is bringing faith into partnership with other stakeholders.

Robin Pomeroy: And Soulaima. What is Happioh? Tell us about that.

Soulaima Gourani: Well you know I'm deeply fascinated by AI. I'm I'm a tech founder and and I was awarded last year to be the founder of one of the best, actually the best AI products of '24, and I'm located in Palo Alto in Silicon Valley.

Robin Pomeroy: What was the best product of 2024?

Soulaima Gourani: Yes. We have an AI agent gym. That means that we monitor and train AI agents. So you communicate with agents all the time. When you call your insurance company or your travel agency, you name it. And we just make sure that these agents don't go nuts or even worse, off script. So we kind of monitor that.

So you know, I've been in tech since '99, and I think tech leaders sincerely and really profoundly want to do good in the world. But sometime perhaps we get it wrong. So I'm hoping that we will understand to better communicate with the faith communities of how to build AI that is ideally making people's life better, not worse.

Robin Pomeroy: I'm still on the edge of the diving board now before going in on those issues. I want to ask you one other thing. If you're comfortable speaking about your own faith a little bit, I'd be interested. I think I know from the little research I'd done ahead of this what your religions are, but I'll allow you to tell me. And I also want you to address the issue of yes, faith unites people, it unites masses of people, but also it divides people. Faith is very often also an identity, it can be an ethnicity, it can be quite tribal. It's a way of identifying I'm this and you're that and we're not the same thing. And that can't work. Maybe that's one reason, maybe one of many reasons people are a bit nervous about talking about faith because it would divide us. So could you tell us something about your own faith and address that issue of division?

Soulaima Gourani: I'm happy to. I was born in Morocco but raised in Denmark. And my dad was a Muslim, my mom an atheist, my grandmother Jewish, and I got baptised as a Protestant when I was 13. So I'm like a peace project myself, I claim.

For me faith is the guiding star in everything I do. It's something I think about 24/7. It's between me and God. It's not necessarily something I need to broadcast everywhere. But if you go to my LinkedIn, it will take you only a second to define and find out what my religious ties are. I've decided to be very open about that. And so yeah, that's that's that's my background.

Robin Pomeroy: And what about this idea of so if everyone's not a Protestant with a Muslim father and a Jewish grandparent, they're not part of your tribe? How do you address that issue?

Soulaima Gourani: I agree that religion divides people, but I choose to think... I've now lived in four different countries and I travel to 50+ countries and I work with the global team. Most people want the exact same things in life. So I don't buy the notion that religion divides. Some churches or some leaders or some mosques and whatever have that intention, but most don't. So I want to think that more unite us than divide us.

Gopal Patel: Yeah, so my story is that I was born and raised in the UK and around the age of 18-19 I had a bit of a inclination to understand a bit more about my faith tradition. I grew up in a Hindu household but didn't know much about the tradition.

And so throughout college and definitely after, I went on a journey of searching, which ended up in an ashram in India on the banks of the river Ganges, and I lived there for about a year. I had a shaved head, I had robes, I slept on a very simple bed, and I studied Hindu texts in Sanskrit there for about a year. And then I came back to England and lived in an ashram in England for about a year as well.

So I have some lived experience as a full-time monastic. I don't say I was a monk, I often say I was monkeying around. So I did that for a couple of years.

And I'm still a practising Hindu now. And specifically within the Hindu tradition, I belong to the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition, which comes out of comes out of West Bengal. So that that's my tradition.

And in terms of your question around how does religion divide, I think anything that is powerful can be used for good or for bad. And when we do see religion being used as a tool for violence or separation or conflict, it's oftentimes those at the extremes that are utilising religion for an another motive to cause that division.

And I think part of the work of the Faith in Action Council is to show that faith is a normal thing. Faith is something that most of us have, and if we don't use it in a healthy way and in a way that shows up positively in the world, it will be co-opted by the extremes and that will cause further division. And so we're really trying to normalise this idea that we are people of faith, and it's okay to show up with that faith in your work.

Robin Pomeroy: Let's look at those issues then that you're discussing. How about the economy then? You know, there's always been a conflict, hasn't there, between the path of God if you like, if you are if you were living somewhere as a monk, giving up earthly things, lots of religions have that. You know, a camel and the eye of a needle. I think it there's a thread of that through most of the big religions, I think, that actually you can't pursue great riches and and be a good person. Obviously there's lots of religious people who would reject that. But what kind of conversations can you have within a group of like minded people about how religion fits into capitalism and wealth creation?

Soulaima Gourani: Well it's a big question. Money has no soul, right? It's just it's just it's just a tool. You shouldn't be a slave of money, I think most religions are trying to say. You can desire beauty and stuff and things, but it shouldn't be the main goal in your life.

Well we are sitting in Dubai. Dubai is a very good example of how they look at you know, finance, Islamic financing and and all those sort of things and it's really embedded in the industry here, while it's not so much in the US for instance.

What I understand what we're doing is that making sure that the financial markets also understand that they have a duty to make sure everyone has something to live by and and and kind of is more fair system, better distributed system.

So I think it's both making sure that there's enough for everyone, but also understanding that faith communities have an issue with the traditional financing industries and we need to figure that out because otherwise millions of people will stay unbanked or yeah, not having access to to good financial systems.

So but it it's it's a hard question. I agree with you. And that's exactly why we need to sit around the table with all religions and discuss finance.

Robin Pomeroy: So a lot of it comes down to wealth inequality, just the simple unfairness of the system today.

Soulaima Gourani: I would totally boil it down to those two, but that's simplifying it a lot. But I think we we we can agree to do that, yes.

Robin Pomeroy: Do you think you're going to find some answers on that issue?

Gopal Patel: Yeah, Soulaima's right on there. I mean we see now an economic system that isn't working and hasn't been working for a long time for a lot of people and is causing now environmental damage, increasing polarisation and and so on.

And so I think what we're trying to work out is what does a moral economy look like? What does an economic system look like going forward that serves people and planet together that doesn't reward necessarily greed but recognises that, in Mahatma Gandhi's teaching, you know, there is enough in the world for every man's need, but not for a single man's greed. And so how do we share resources equitably so that everyone has a chance of flourishing and leading a good life?

And I think unfortunately our economic system has gone away from that and has just focused on the accumulation of wealth and has forgotten the individual and the community at the heart of our economic systems.

And I think faiths can help us reorientate us back to that original understanding that money is needed, commerce is needed to make the world go round, but there needs to be certain ways that capital flows and that economic systems are structured so that everyone has a has a fair shot in life.

Robin Pomeroy: Are you planning on kind of coming up with policy recommendations after the end of this discussion? Because you can say we should all be better people, we wish we had a better system, but translating that into actual action is very difficult. And also, there's probably a diversity of things. What might work in Dubai might not work the same in Nairobi, for example, or Beijing or New York. But I guess the underlying morality, if you want to call it, might be the same. I mean, how do you hope this will translate through to action?

Soulaima Gourani: We actually have those locations represented in the in the group. You didn't know that.

So well first and foremost, if I may, and while I'm sure you can you can add to that, we want to provide a toolbox. Let me explain.

It's not only you that have questions by faith, why interfaith, and what does it mean to bring that in action, pretty much. So we want to provide a toolbox. An easy access toolbox where you can go and if you have for instance work on a policy or a new law or a new technology or whatever you do, even for your next board meeting or for whatever, and you want to make sure that whatever you decide or are thinking about will be aligned with all things. Then you can go and and look at our toolbox and our recommendations.

And then of course the the podcast that we're doing also to my understanding, I might be wrong here, but we are the first Council that actually provides a live podcast while we're working. And that means that everyone can access our discussions and disagreements even. And on that, based on that, they can create their own opinions and hopefully we hope, go back in the respective rooms and continue those discussions in your company or workplace or whatever.

Gopal Patel: Yeah, I don't think we're going to come from the mountain with two tablets and say this is now what the moral economy should look like for the next thousand years.

Robin Pomeroy: Isn't that what religion's all about?

Gopal Patel: I mean, yes, sometimes. I think what we're trying to do is really kind of surface like what are the questions that we need to ask, like what are the dialogues that we need to have to get to a better place.

And really we're really just wanting to be the start of that conversation, no means the end of that conversation, and really invite other people into that conversation as well.

One thing that we've been discussing is that this isn't a conversation just, you know, isolated to people of faith or belief. There are many, many people who recognise that our economic systems need to be transformed in really significant ways. And we want to build that container so that conversation can take place grounded in values and beliefs and spirit.

Robin Pomeroy: And I suppose that's linked inextricably to the second issue, nature and climate change. You know, if economic systems worked better, we wouldn't be destroying the nature, we wouldn't be heading for a climate catastrophe. So I guess it's almost part of the same conversation, right?

Gopal Patel: It is, you can't delink the two, unfortunately. And so the the climate and nature aspect of of the Global Future Council on Faith in Action is looking at what are faith groups already doing when it comes to climate and nature. There's a significant body of work stretching over three or four decades at that intersection.

But crucially, how can this council now catalyse a next decade or two decades of action going forward? Recognising that we are in a very acute situation right now when it comes to the climate and nature crisis and work needs to happen at speed and scale if we are to avoid the worst effect effects of the global environmental challenges.

And so the council is thinking through now, okay, who again, what are the questions we need to be asking, who are the people we need to be talking to, what are the discussions that need to happen, so that faith again in partnership with the private sector, with other stakeholders, can really come together in an effective way to move the needle forward on climate and nature.

Soulaima Gourani: And also if I may, we need to make sure that we all agree on that there is a climate crisis, at both ends. So I think also we engage the faith communities to make sure that everyone is aware that we actually have a climate crisis.

Robin Pomeroy: And how's that going? Because there are parts of the world where, cards on the table, let's look at the United States of America, where a lot of conservative Christians would deny that climate change is happening. It's all part of a conspiracy. So where does the conversation go with that?

Gopal Patel: I'll take that one. One thing that's really emerging in the climate and nature space, not just in our council, but I think in other nature and climate spaces is that the messaging needs to be adapted to a changing reality of the political and economic situation of the world. And so I think although the messaging up until now has been good to mobilise a lot of people, it's also alienated a lot of people where now even the word or phrase climate change is a politicised word that a lot of organisations now are moving away from.

So I think it's about finding the language that relates to people's values and their own self interest. And I think if we can find that, which which the faiths are expert at, then I think we can move the majority of people in the direction of recognising this is a crisis that we all need to collectively work on fixing.

Robin Pomeroy: And again, a bit like there's a common thread in religions when it comes to inequality, there's also a common thread, isn't there, about looking after the environment, the natural world. So that's on your side in this argument.

Gopal Patel: Yes, I mean, we often say that every religion comes from nature, whether we come from the desert or the mountains or the forests or the gardens, we all come from nature. And so embedded in every single religious tradition is an understanding of how to live in harmony with the natural world, to live in balance, Al Mizan.

The challenge now and the opportunity is how do you translate that ancient knowledge and wisdom from 2000 years ago to the current context where you're not living necessarily in nature, but you're living in New York City or London or or Nairobi or another major city of the world. How to bring the old thinking and that wisdom into the current context is really the opportunity and challenge right now for the climate and nature work in when it comes to mobilising faith groups.

Robin Pomeroy: Well let's get to artificial intelligence then. Soulaima, this is this your realm, isn't it? I mean, I've been thinking also on your podcast, you've each plugged the podcast. I'm plugging it again now. One of the things struck me was someone on there said, oh yeah, in my church, we get AI to generate the prayers, right? Which would not have occurred to me, but you know, that's let me set that aside.

On a more fundamental level. AI, you can talk to AI, it seems intelligent, it can seem like it has personality. Do you think it will get to the situation where we believe it has a soul? You might even get the impression that just as you pray and you say you or you say you have a relationship with God, which is your relationship. Some people have relationships with AI chatbots, which mean a lot to them. They might end up thinking they're even talking to God, or at least something with a soul. I mean, it's fascinating but also quite disturbing, isn't it?

Soulaima Gourani: It is, it is. Well, there's still huge difference between being a human and an algorithm still. And they will continue to be because an algorithm don't have an inner life, you know. They don't have feelings and they can pretend but they don't. So humans are still very much in the loop.

And AI is not bad necessarily. In fact, I l personally I think AI is incredible. See, before just three years ago, only 1-2% of the world's population could afford a lawyer. If you had a thing with your landlord or, you know, you had to go and buy yourself legal advice or now everyone really have access to a tutor, right? Or if you have a want a second opinion from your doctor and you don't have a second opinion doctor to go to, you can ask actually healthcare, actually research. I have big faith in AI for exactly research, first and foremost research, but also defence and military, right? To be honest, those are the two things that I think AI is very well suited to.

So but of course AI can be bad too. And we will see more people getting married to a AI/robot, whatever. That's already happening in Asia, Japan is is is a great example of how that's happening at rapid speed, and that's sad. But I'm not surprised. You know, and maybe sometimes I wish my spouse was an AI because you know he would agree with me more. But human relationships are messy and it's complicated. And so I'm not surprised at all that we consider AI to be more friendly and maybe more friendly than our friends.

So we will see a hybrid between having AI friends and real friends and maybe that's going to be be blurry. Is it bad or good? I don't know. If it cures loneliness, then I think it's good. But if it makes you more lonely then I then I don't like it.

Robin Pomeroy: Gopal, what's your consideration of of AI? Why do you need to bring that faith lens to look at it?

Gopal Patel: I think because faith has a contribution to make on any any global innovation or any global challenge that is going to affect every single person on the planet.

Faiths are the oldest traditions living, older civil society organisations. They've survived through so many ups and downs throughout thousands of years and they will be around for much longer as well. And so they have so much accumulated wisdom they can offer to anything that's happening in the world.

And I think with the AI conversation, I think there's much to offer, obviously as as been has been mentioned in terms of like does AI become sentient? Is it a Terminator 2 kind of scenario? We're not 100% sure. But faiths are going to need to be there as part of that conversation.

We've been hearing that there's going to be major job losses because of AI just taking people's jobs. Who who handles all the grief when people don't have work to go to? What happens when there starts becoming a little bit of civil unrest just because there's a high level of unemployment? Faiths are going to need to be there.

So there's the hard technical technological aspects of the development of A of AI, but there's also the soft side of it as well, the human aspect, the human implications that AI is going to have and is having, and that's also where faith can have a role and contribution to make.

Robin Pomeroy: In your discussions in the wider group, are people coming up with just the power of AI? I mean what is God? Don't expect you to answer, that's not actual question. That was rhetorically posed.

Gopal Patel: We can answer it if you like.

Robin Pomeroy: But one thing God possibly should be is all knowing. And in theory AI, even now, kind of it should know everything any human has ever known. And therefore you can ask it about it. It's almost like, well, why do we even need God or faith anymore if we've got this thing that will literally answer our questions?

Because God, you may feel God speaking to you, but you can't prove that to anyone else. I could speak to an AI and you we'd all be able to hear the same words coming out. Maybe we don't need God anymore and it's going to be replaced.

Is that, are you getting to that level of discussion there? And what are the answers to that?

Gopal Patel: We haven't we haven't got to that level of conversation.

Robin Pomeroy: I'll come in and when we finish this interview I'll come in the room with you and

Gopal Patel: Okay, yeah, yeah, come in, come in.

One thing I would say to that, and I'm wondering Soulaima, maybe from the Christian faith, like from the Hindu tradition, you know, the relationship with God is not transactional. And I I don't think any tradition would would say that. And you know, and your relationship with God and the kind of the feedback loop you get with the divine is based on your on on your own spirit, on your own consciousness, on your own sense of love for the divine, for God.

You know, and so the levels of revelation that come from God are dependent on the level of surrender and the level of devotion that you have for the supreme, you know.

And so it's like a two-year-old, a two-year-old will ask the teacher a question, a mathematical question, and the teacher will give a simple answer. But when the two-year-old becomes 15, the answer is going to be very much more different because the the student has progressed in their age and understanding of the world and life. And I think that's how our relationship is with God.

At an immature stage or at a young stage, we get very simple answers. But as we grow in our love and devotion to God and with God, the answers become much more refined or much more nuanced or much more sublime. And that's something that AI can't replace or take away.

And so God will always be there, whether or not we believe in them or not, that's that's another conversation. But God can never take away that love and that grace. AI can never take away that, yeah.

Speaker 5: But if you add webcams to it, maybe it can relate to the fact that God sees everything. I don't know.

Robin Pomeroy: I'm glad you came out with a flippant answer there, otherwise I would have had to. I'm not I wasn't going to.

So where do agnostics and atheists sit in all this? Because I mentioned at the start that religion can can unite but it can also divide and it can completely exclude then the faithless, the godless, you know, those of us who don't think we've got all the answers. I'm hoping most religious people don't think they've got all the answers either. But where do you see them fitting in?

Soulaima Gourani: Well, atheists they have their own conferences that are as big as the big conventions that we have as as Christians. It's fascinating because I find that atheists are, is a faith too, you know. They believe that they don't believe in anything, right? So and they're very firm in that. And yet many of them will call themselves spiritual, which I find interesting.

I struggle to find the difference between religious and spiritual. Like I what's the big difference? But there is a difference according to many of them.

I don't think they are left out at any point because again, not all, but many executives consider themselves as atheists. Not everyone, but many, and they find it fascinating to come and discuss faith because they do know that 80-85% of the workforce don't agree with having no faith. So they are desperate to understand the nature of human beings, and I think that curiosity, when that is the driving force to the table, then it doesn't matter what religion you you have or don't have yourself.

Gopal Patel: Yeah, and we're not here to push God. You know, we're not looking to create a theocratic state or you know, world order based on belief of the supreme. We're here to say that these traditions, these wisdom traditions, have been around for thousands of years. They have learnt many things about the human psyche, about the how the world operates, how the world works, and we have things we can learn from them about where we go going forward.

And they also have vast infrastructure and influence from media to hospitals to finance. And so it's about how do you harness that collective wisdom and infrastructure for the common good to address these challenges around AI, the economy and climate change.

We're really not here to say that everyone needs to believe in God because that's never going to happen.

Robin Pomeroy: So you meet leaders, company leaders and others. Do you have advice for them?

Soulaima Gourani: Read our report.

Robin Pomeroy: Listen to the podcast. Come on, get that in.

Soulaima Gourani: Wouldn't you say, Gopal, that more and more are publicly acknowledging their faith also?

Gopal Patel: Yeah. I yeah, and and I would say I think we're in a period where we're we're having to re examine the assumptions on which the world lives. And that's causing a lot of upheaval in societies and and cultures around the world.

And so what I would say to leaders is don't take anything for granted anymore. The assumptions by which the modern world has been built is in many ways based on Judeo-Christian understandings of the world. And they work for some people and have worked for a long time, but now we're recognising the limits of that thinking and we're recognising that there are parts of the world where that thinking no longer works or never worked in the first place.

And so as we try to usher in a positive new world, don't take anything for granted and challenge the assumptions that the world is currently built on.

Robin Pomeroy: So it's kind of the opposite of being small c conservative. You're saying don't take things as they are, question them.

Gopal Patel: I think the world is always changing and I think to hold on to something which is breaking in front of us, it's not going to be helpful.

When some, this is a Hindu teaching, when something is ending, you recognise something is ending in the belief and knowledge that something new and beautiful is going to come out of that. And I think that's the place we are in in the world today and that's the wisdom and that's where faith can come in to speak to that moment right now.

Robin Pomeroy: If you think things have come to the end or things are broken, you're talking there about the economy, because of the inequality particularly. You're talking about the environment. But AI, is that something you're seeing in these discussions as a risk to humanity, or is it also potentially helping humanity?

Soulaima Gourani: We did the podcast with faith leaders on AI. They are both, we did too, but very optimistic. Right. Not naive but optimistic.

And we were in New York very recent and had the chance to sit with some of the most influential business leaders in the world for some of the biggest companies. And there's no doubt that there is a real risk. But we also firmly believe, I hope, that AI will solve many, many, many things that we cannot solve the way we would today.

Think about research. What we can now accomplish together. I was interviewing a an executive just last week and he told me that he's pretty mind blowing in fact, that he used we used to need about ten years to figure something out when it comes to rare diseases and there are many hundred thousand small diseases that we've never heard about. But someone is ill from that exactly that illness and will really like a cure, but there's not enough money or resources, knowledge to cure that particular disease. Now we are down to ten days. Ten years to ten days. And he assumed that very soon within a year we can have solutions within one day. This is mind blowing. So it will be a revolution. So that's why, all those sort of things are going to get a recolution.

So so I'm mostly optimistic. But of course, yeah, there are a lot of evil people out there that will use it for evil purpose, but so is fire, right? So yeah, I don't know.

Gopal Patel: I don't think any of us are under any illusions that AI is going to fundamentally change every aspect of of the world as we know it. And whether that's good or bad, that depends on how we respond to those changes. And how we learn the lessons of the past.

We're just in an era right now where we're recognising that social media probably wasn't the best thing for the world. But when it came out, we loved it, it was great, we were on all the platforms, and now we see how it's caused isolation and polarisation and misinformation and led to a lot of the political upheavals we see in the world today.

Can we learn these lessons from history, from not lo distant history but recent history and apply them to the changes that AI is going to bring? And I think if we can do that, and I'm hoping we can, then AI can be utilised for or force for good.

Robin Pomeroy: And are there specific lessons from religions that can be brought to bear?

So when you think about AI, look what we can learn from Hinduism or Christianity or Islam or anything else. Are there going to be those lessons, you think?

Gopal Patel: I think the lessons are what faiths have done for thousands of years, which is bring people together, give people a sense of belonging, identity, meaning in their life, make them feel part of a story that's larger than themselves, give them self worth.

I think if we can hold on to that within within all the disruptions that AI is going to bring, then I think faith has a positive contribution to make if it can continue doing what it's done for thousands of years.

Soulaima Gourani: I mean I'm part of a church in Palo Alto and it's probably the most tech advanced church in the world, I think. We use technology in many of our sessions and they have a dramatically very successful podcast where they invite all those famous tech leaders in to talk about faith and technology. And it's mind blowing how many thoughts and energy that's put into products or services that they are launching.

They basically want to improve the lives of human beings. And sometimes we get it wrong. I agree, or we haven't imagined that our product could be misused, you know.

We have very prominent tech companies that woke up one morning and realised that their technology was used for very evil I don't know, detection by people by the border and that was never the intention for whatever tracking device they invented, you know, or or whatever they were working on. And I have hundreds of such stories.

But I do think that people who are religious in one way or another, I truly believe, unless they're extremists, they really want to do good in the world.

So I'm I'm optimistic, especially when I know that a tech leader is a member of whatever church or is a religious person. Then I'm like, okay, that might really go well. With a few exceptions of course. It depends, it depends. I mean drones are nice, right? But maybe sometimes they're not so nice, so it depends on this yeah.

Robin Pomeroy: Soulaima Gorani, thank you very much. Gopal Patel, thank you. I'll let you go back to the Global Future Council on Faith in Action.

People listening to this can find out about the Global Future Councils on our website. There's a link in the show notes.

Radio Davos was written and presented by me, Robin Pomeroy. We'll be back next week. Make sure you're following us wherever you get your podcasts, wherever you're listening to this. We'll be back next week. Thanks to you for listening and goodbye.