A University of Kentucky administrator won a religious exemption from using AI at work as a Humanist, and his case could matter for any worker whose boss pushes AI.
A man who does not believe in a god has won a religious exemption from using AI at his job. David Durman, an administrator at the University of Kentucky, is a nontheistic Humanist. He is the first Humanist known to get a workplace accommodation that lets him avoid AI.
Humanism is not anti-religious. It tends to appeal to people who doubt a god or other supernatural power but still want a scientific and moral framework to live by. Durman describes it as a set of beliefs about the human experience, centered on well-being and flourishing, for individuals and for everyone around them.
Durman believes using AI runs against those beliefs. He argues that people become moral actors by actively using their minds, and that leaning on AI weakens that. In a statement published by the American Humanist Association (AHA), he also pointed to lost jobs, environmental costs and the use of human creative work.
He went to the AHA, a nonprofit that advances secular humanism, to learn how to get legal protection. He was inspired by Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist and software engineer who won a similar exemption first.
University spokesperson Jay Blanton said the school reviews religious accommodation requests one by one. It looks at the job duties and the circumstances. In this case, it decided Durman could be accommodated and still do the essential parts of his job. Blanton added that accommodations may be reviewed as technology and jobs change.
Durman is not currently required to use AI. He supports researchers who apply for grants. But some colleagues and leaders have urged staff to try the tools, so he asked now, in case that advice becomes a rule later.
AHA staff attorney Alexandria Huiskens said worries about AI and human dignity run through many traditions, including Catholic teaching, Universalism and Humanism. She wants nontheists to know they are also protected by the law at work. The story opens by noting that Pope Leo XIV has called AI a threat to human dignity.
Durman says he is not trying to tell anyone how to think. He hopes people with similar concerns will pursue them in whatever way feels most appropriate, not necessarily through a religious exemption.
If AI use at work conflicts with your deeply held beliefs, religious or not, a formal accommodation request may be worth looking into before AI becomes mandatory.
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