PKB Secretary General: AI is a Tool, Not a Replacement for Religious Scholars

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Secretary General of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Central Executive Board, Hasanuddin Wahid, known as Cak Udin, has emphasised that artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool created by humans, whereas religion is a teaching sourced from God. “AI can provide comprehensive references and data. But AI remains merely a tool. AI will never be able to replace the role of the people’s teachers, the nation’s teachers, or the teachers who guide the community through exemplary conduct and chains of scholarly transmission,” Cak Udin stated at the PKB Central Office in Jakarta on Wednesday. The remarks were made during a public discussion titled “The Meeting Space of AI and Religion: Welcoming the Future of Religious Life in the Artificial Intelligence Era,” held as part of the PKB’s 28th anniversary commemorations. According to him, the development of AI has elicited various responses from the public and religious figures. Some see AI beginning to take over certain functions traditionally performed by religious leaders, while others reject its use entirely, believing AI lacks a spiritual dimension and cannot replace the teacher-student relationship within the Islamic scholarly tradition. “This phenomenon is a collective challenge in formulating religion’s stance towards AI and how AI can be utilised responsibly in religious life,” he said. He also revealed that AI has now entered the pesantren environment. He cited an example of a student who challenged a kiai’s explanation by referencing kitab sources obtained through AI, presented in a more systematic manner. Cak Udin noted this phenomenon raises at least three major challenges. The first is the challenge to religious authority. The development of AI raises questions about whether authority over religious knowledge will remain under the guidance of ulama and kiai or shift to machines capable of presenting information instantly. The second challenge concerns ethics and the essence of humanity. Although AI is a human creation, this technological development has the potential to influence how humans view ethics, spirituality, and human relations. The public discussion featured various speakers from diverse backgrounds to comprehensively address the relationship between AI and religion, including House of Representatives Commission I member H. Oleh Soleh, Director General of Digital Ecosystem at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Dr. Edwin Hidayat A., caretaker of Minggir Islamic Boarding School in Yogyakarta Gus Muwafiq, and Chairman of the Collaborative Research and Industrial Innovation for Artificial Intelligence (KORIKA) Prof. Hammam Riza. Through this forum, PKB hopes to create a constructive dialogue between technological development and religious values, so that the use of AI can enhance the quality of religious life without displacing the central role of humans, ulama, and the scholarly traditions that form the foundation of civilisation.