University of Kentucky Grants Humanist Worker AI Exemption

The University of Kentucky's Office of Equal Opportunity has granted research administrator David Durman a workplace religious accommodation letting him avoid personally using AI tools on the job. Durman, a nontheistic Humanist who supports researchers applying for grants, is believed to be the first person from a secular belief tradition to secure such an exemption, TechCrunch reports.

Durman told TechCrunch that "the way we become moral actors for ourselves and for others is through the active application of our minds, and the diminishing of that is going to necessarily have a negative impact on our ability to do so." He also tied his objection to broader harms, saying AI "is interfering with people's ability to earn a living, the environmental costs spell disaster for humanity and our planet, and its supplanting and theft of human creativity threaten elements of our culture like art and literature."

The American Humanist Association helped draft the request. "Concern about AI and human dignity can run through several different faiths and traditions, whether that's Catholic teachings, or Universalism, or Humanism, and we want Humanists or nontheists to know that they fall into these categories," said Alexandria Huiskens, a staff attorney at the AHA.

UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said the university "determined that an accommodation could be provided while allowing the employee to continue performing the essential functions of their position." Durman's exemption follows a similar accommodation secured earlier by Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist software engineer. The case lands in a stretch where our AI ethics tracker has logged 85 stories across the last 90 days.