Can Buddhism Help us Navigate the Age of AI ?

Buddhist teachers, leadership experts and AI professionals will meet for the first time in the UK on 13 and 14 November in London for a symposium. The event is organised by the Wisdom & AI Network that was founded earlier this year by a group of Rigpa students.

“AI, like any technology, is an extension of the human mind. Given the deep connection between AI and the human mind, safely navigating the changes that the development of AI brings about would benefit from a holistic understanding of what the mind actually is,” says Jonathan Garner.

Jonathan trains the staff of large companies in adopting healthy relationships with the digital world, he is the CEO of Mind over Tech and is a co-founder of Wisdom & AI.

Buddhism studies the human mind. Can this ancient tradition offer anything to this new technology that some of us may find overwhelming? Buddhist teachers have worked with scientists for decades to better understand mental health, and share practical tools to cultivate inner peace, empathy and compassion that anyone can use. Can they help us with AI?

The symposium will explore how the Buddhist understanding of self, mind and consciousness can revolutionize the way we relate to AI – avoiding personifying AI, misplaced attachment to technology, mistaking intelligence for consciousness, as well as educating our intention and attention. But that’s not all. Technology can also align AI with wisdom.

Fionn Inglis, who the Rigpa sangha known as a member of the team organising and facilitating Youth Retreats, co-authored the research paper Contemplative Wisdom for Superalignment. He will be presenting at the Symposium on Measuring Wisdom and Compassion in Large Language Models (LLMs).

The symposium is open to AI professionals, leadership experts and Buddhist teachers. For more information, contact: symposiumwisdomai@gmail.com or register here.

Rigpa UK is kindly offering their London meditation centre, as a venue for the event.

A report from the Symposium will be shared in the coming months.