Temple and Tartan: psalms, poetry, and Scotland

Abstract

on humanity’ (204–5). Asserting the importance of independent human review/intervention in algorithmic decision-making systems is indeed crucial as is retaining moral accountability of designers and users in autonomous systems. Peckham does, however adopt a rather extreme position (based on earlier discussion) that ‘digital surveillance of citizens is a breach of privacy and freedom and should be banned’ (205). This fails to recognise that privacy is never an absolute right. In law there are justifiable grounds for surveillance such as for national security or where an offence is suspected. It is not a ‘breach of privacy’ to be subject to surveillance systems in contexts where children or vulnerable adults are receiving care. A much more developed theological understanding of privacy and of freedom would have led to stronger conclusions. Peckham’s book articulates highly pertinent concerns around AI but his biblical and theological hermeneutics are insufficiently developed to adequately underpin and drive home his conclusions. Readers who identify with Peckham’s concern for ‘what the Bible teaches’ (xiii) from within the broadly Protestant Evangelical perspective will find useful supplementary reading in, for example, Albert Borgmann’s Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2003) or Brian Brock’s Christian Ethics in a Technological Age (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010).