Hope, Christian Morality, and the Ethics of Predictive AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is inseparable from human society, and the future of humankind is intertwined with the future of AI. This article is intended to explore the interconnection between the futures of humankind and ethical AI from the perspective of Jürgen Moltmann's theology of hope. It will focus on predictive AI, particularly predictive policing tools, which are designed to forecast potential crimes and harms through statistical analysis of personal data. It will be demonstrated that predictive policing presupposes that the future can be mathematically calculated out of the past and the present. This principle underlies various social and moral issues, such as racial discrimination and injustice, surrounding the deployment of predictive policing tools. Moltmann's theology of hope generates the concept of the hoped-for future and reconciliation ethics, which together advance the development of the ecosystem of AI-driven predictive policing and identify predictive policing tools as human planning participating in God's planning for the future of reconciled humanity. The theology of hope shows a path through which human planning leads to a future that is not absolutely determined by the past or the present but will be packed with the newness of human community.