A Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI

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(RNS) — As a humanist, David Durman believes in the importance of the human part of life. That means making his own decisions and making sure his work helps people flourish.

When the University of Kentucky, where the 45-year-old works as a research administrator, started asking employees to use AI in their workflow, he got worried. Durman felt he was being asked to offload his thinking to tools like Microsoft Teams Copilot, Claude and ChatGPT bots in his day-to-day work.

That felt like a violation of his beliefs, he said.

“The process and work involved in thinking through situations, through my work, through my ethics, through the way I handle other people, is a key component in being able to develop myself as a moral person,” he told RNS in a video interview. “And offloading that labor, regardless of whether it’s taxing or not, is undercutting my ability to be a moral actor.”

RELATED: Pope Leo says existential concerns about AI ‘should be taken seriously’

With the help of the American Humanist Association, he asked for an accommodation under Title VII, a federal law that allows employees to ask for a change in their work requirements to comply with religious belief.

In September, the university agreed and granted him a religious accommodation, meaning he does not have to use AI to complete his work. 

Officials at the American Humanist Association believe it’s the first case of a humanist being granted an AI exemption.

“This is the first of its kind at the AHA and for humanism generally to exempt those who see AI use as flying in the face of their freedom of conscience,” Alexandria Huiskens, a staff attorney at the American Humanist Association, told RNS.

Durman’s case comes as religious leaders like Pope Leo XIV and Americans overall are expressing skepticism about AI.

A Washington Post-ABC News-IPOS poll released this week found that 57% of Americans said that AI is bad for society. And two-thirds oppose building the data centers needed to use AI.

In his encyclical, or papal teaching document, earlier this year, Pope Leo warned that AI could weaken democracy and human dignity. If misused, AI tools could also give added power to a few elites while leaving the rest of humanity behind, the pope wrote.

“When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities,” Leo wrote in “Magnifica Humanitas.”

Durman said he also worries AI could affect society in ways that are harmful. As a humanist, he believes in the importance of human flourishing. “At a societal level, I think that the use of AI technology runs counter to that,” he said.

His accommodation request was inspired in part by Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist software engineer who made headlines after receiving an exemption from her employer because of her religious concerns about AI.

After hearing about Maus’ case, Durman reached out to the American Humanist Association for help in requesting an accommodation of his own.

Huiskens helped Durman craft his letter requesting a religious accommodation under Title VII. She said AHA often gets requests for help with accommodat…