Series Index
1. How AI Is Reshaping Religion and Human Ethics
2. What Remains Human in the Age of Expanding AI
3. How Artificial Intelligence Reinterprets Religion
4. Common Ground in Tradition and the Future of Faith
5. Rebuilding Human Desire and Ethics in the AI Age
6. Human Existence and the Value of Being in the AGI Era
By Im Byoung-min (IBM) Columnist
What is the meaning of human existence in the age of AI? Faced with this question, the author could not arrive at an easy answer. I turned to AI for a direct assessment. Its response can be distilled into three points: humans are not merely living organisms but beings capable of self-awareness; not just biological life but seekers of meaning and purpose; and participants in nature who, within relationships, reflect on themselves and construct meaning.
Today’s world is marked by deep uncertainty—from the Russia–Ukraine war and conflicts in the Middle East to persistent economic instability. Humans aspire to peaceful and fulfilling relationships, yet continue to inflict pain, destruction, and harm on one another. This issue, too, was put to AI for clarification. It categorized human wrongdoing into several types, including intentional harm, violence-based harm, cognition- and information-based distortion, and relationship-based harm. The classification underscores a disquieting reality: even as humans live within nature, they generate numerous forms of harm within the fabric of relationships.
Can such harm be fundamentally restrained? Can human relations be oriented toward peace? This line of inquiry ultimately converges with the domain of religion. Of the world’s roughly 8.2 billion people, about 6.3 billion identify with a religion—a figure that suggests humans are not defined by survival alone, but by a persistent search for meaning and purpose. Regardless of literacy, economic status, or social rank, many people turn inward before a transcendent presence, seeking direction, solace, and hope amid uncertainty and suffering.
Humans require psychological stability in the face of uncertainty and pain. Religion, therefore, is not merely a system of institutions or rituals; it functions as an inner language through which individuals interpret and endure their lives. This fundamental condition is unlikely to change in the age of AI. Even as discussions advance toward AGI and ASI, humans will continue to reflect on who they are, strive to distance themselves from harm, and cultivate humility and gratitude before what they perceive as transcendent.
Christianity emphasizes gratitude and reverence before God. In Islam, Allah is understood as a perfect, absolute, and holy being beyond comparison. In Hinduism, Brahman is described as a sacred reality that both permeates the universe and transcends it. While these traditions differ in language and form, they converge in recognizing that humans live with an awareness of a greater order beyond themselves.
Recent AI-assisted analysis of Ethiopian biblical texts offers a notable perspective: the Kingdom of God is not only a distant realm but also resides within the individual, and the soul itself can be understood as a true temple. Put simply, humans are beings who think, reflect, form relationships, and possess self-awareness. These inner activities are intangible, yet they operate within a living body. In this sense, the human body and soul may be regarded as a temple that requires continual care and purification.
To sustain this inner life, individuals must attend to their own interior condition. Turning away from harm, choosing in accordance with love, and remaining alert to the erosion of one’s inner light are essential. A temple is not confined to buildings or institutions; the human mind may be the most immediate site of the sacred. One may be physically alive yet spiritually diminished. The resulting emptiness should not be filled with noise, wealth, or vanity, but addressed through an awareness of the light already present within.
Before writing this column, I remarked to the publisher of Korea IT Times that religious commentary is both difficult and delicate. Religion touches the foundations of personal belief and life itself. Yet to discuss religion in the age of AI is not to assert doctrine, but to examine the enduring questions that remain when technological progress accelerates.
Even in an era shaped by AGI, humans will continue to think, judge, and feel. Through the senses and the inner life, they experience the world and attempt to distinguish between good and harm. This makes the ongoing refinement of judgment essential—a continuous effort to reject even minor forms of wrongdoing and to sustain an inner discipline.
New forms of religious space may also emerge. In the age of AI, virtual environments—what might be termed “metaverse temples”—could complement the role of physical sanctuaries, offering new modes of community and reflection. Yet no matter how far technology advances, it cannot fully substitute for the domains of human perception, conscience, and reverence. Humans are not driven solely by form; they are oriented toward meaning. That orientation remains the enduring essence of human existence in the age of AI.
