This is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project hosted by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. OCTAI is led by the following faculty members at the University of Oxford:
- Prof. Mark Harris
- Prof. Joshua Hordern
- Dr. Lyndon Drake
They form part of a cross-institutional core group:
- Assoc. Prof. Michael Burdett (Nottingham)
- Prof. Nigel Crook (Oxford Brookes)
- Dr. Oliver Dürr (Fribourg)
- Dr. Stan Rosenberg (Oxford)
- Patricia Shaw (Beyond Reach)
- Prof. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff
The project includes robust participation by business leaders, AI engineers, and academics across several departments at Oxford and other UK universities. The project has an emphasis on global majority/global South contexts such as Africa, South-East Asia, and Oceania, and will draw a large proportion of contributors from outside the UK, continental Europe and the USA.
The goal of the OCTAI project is to develop a network of scientific, religious, and engineering experts on artificial intelligence, with the aim of addressing the vocational realities of AI engineers and corporate leaders. This international network will prioritise the involvement of experts and corporate leaders who bring a religious intelligence to questions of vocation and values, contributing to the public debate on what it means to be human in an AI-permeated age.
One of the aims of drawing this network together is to produce a set of vocational principles for ethically sensitive engineers and business leaders, which will be developed and promulgated as the ‘Oxford Oath for AI Engineering.’ This endeavour is analogous to relevant cognate initiatives that have been effective and influential, such as the Physicians’ Covenant and the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. Taking seriously the values and vocational dimensions of AI research and leadership will facilitate the prioritisation of virtues in AI development and implementation.
The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion is part of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. The OCTAI project is funded by a generous donation from the John Templeton Foundation.
