Value-Sensitive AI for Prayer: Balancing the Agencies Between Human and AI Agents in Spiritual Context
Soonho Kwon, Dong Whi Yoo, Shaowen Bardzell, Younah Kang
TLDR
This paper explores how AI influences prayer, finding that maintaining human agency and authenticity is crucial for value-sensitive AI in spiritual contexts.
Key contributions
- Designed four conceptual value-sensitive AI systems to assist prayer practices.
- Used speculative design workbooks to co-reflect on AI's influence on praying experiences.
- Found authenticity is crucial, but AI often diminishes it when taking too much agency.
- Proposes AI designs for value-laden experiences must preserve user agency and interpretive openness.
Why it matters
This research critically examines the delicate balance of human and AI agency in deeply personal spiritual practices. It highlights the importance of preserving authenticity and user control when designing AI for value-laden domains. The findings offer crucial guidance for developing ethical and user-centered AI systems.
Original Abstract
We present four conceptual value-sensitive AI systems to examine how the presence of AI could influence praying experiences. Drawing on key values and practices associated with praying identified through a diary study, we designed AI systems intended to "assist" prayer practices. These designs were presented to participants through speculative design workbooks, serving as provocations to co-reflect on how the intervention of AI systems might shape their praying experiences. Our findings suggest that a sense of authenticity (or feeling a genuine connection to the divine) is a crucial value, while the presence of AI was often perceived as diminishing this authenticity, particularly when AI assumed too much agency in guiding praying practices. Based on our findings, we argue that AI system designs for deeply value-laden experiences should preserve users' agency in shaping their own experiences by maintaining interpretive openness, perhaps by leveraging AI's inexplicability as a resource for personal meaning-making or by recognizing non-use of AI as a legitimate design choice.
📬 Weekly AI Paper Digest
Get the top 10 AI/ML arXiv papers from the week — summarized, scored, and delivered to your inbox every Monday.