University of Kentucky Researcher Granted Religious Exemption for Mandatory AI Use

David Durman, serving as a research manager at the University of Kentucky, successfully managed to be exempted from mandatory workplace artificial intelligence tools on the grounds that they conflict with his humanist beliefs. Durman argued that offloading thinking to large language models like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot undermines the ability to be a moral actor.

According to Religion News Service, David Durman stated that he believes in the human dimension of life and that making his own decisions is a fundamental part of this belief. Upon the university asking its employees to use artificial intelligence, he expressed that this meant outsourcing his thought process to external sources and conflicted with his beliefs.

Durman emphasized that thinking through ethics and human relationships in business processes is a key component for developing as a moral person. For this reason, he earned the right to a religious exemption under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment. Federal courts have ruled that humanism can be considered a religion, even though it is generally a non-religious philosophy or worldview.