The Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft made the call during two appearances on the BBC in September.
He spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme on September 13 and joined a panel discussion on BBC1’s Sunday Morning Live on September 20.
Dr Croft, a long-time member of the House of Lords Select Committee on AI, said churches and faith leaders should help examine the risks linked to the technology.
His comments followed warnings from current and former AI industry specialists about its possible effects on humanity. One specialist said there was a greater than 10 per cent chance of AI “killing all humans” in the near future.
Microsoft’s head of AI has also said legislation is needed to prevent a “silicon species” from emerging as a competitor to humanity.
During his Radio 4 appearance, Dr Croft said faith communities should address the deeper moral and spiritual questions raised by AI.
He said the Church should take warnings about the technology seriously rather than dismissing them as science fiction.
Questions raised by AI, he argued, were not only technological or economic. They also involved fundamental issues about what it means to be human.
Dr Croft suggested the Church may need to recover some of its language about ultimate questions and the future of humanity when discussing developments that some people regard as potentially “apocalyptic”.
During the BBC1 programme, he said faith leaders should have a role in government efforts to oversee and regulate AI.
Dr Croft said: “The church and the faith traditions have been thinking about the central question about what it means to be human for thousands and thousands of years. We have very important things to bring to this debate.
“Whenever I have been involved in these debates with those developing this technology, they have welcomed that and said, ‘please don’t leave it to the computer scientists – this is so important for the future of humanity’.”
His comments came after calls for coordinated action to slow the development of AI and address possible dangers.
Dr Croft retired as Bishop of Oxford this summer.
In his retirement speech to the House of Lords in July, he called for governments to be bolder when setting policy and regulating technology firms.
Speaking about AI, Dr Croft said: “The speed of change, and the significant power unleashed, make this revolution distinct from other technical developments in the past, because there is a risk that the speed of change will itself undermine the very benefits that change brings.”
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