Senior Episcopal priest in Connecticut Father Thomas W. Blake, Greek-Orthodox Christian clergyman in Nevada Father Stephen R. Karcher, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, renowned Buddhist minister Reverend Matthew T. Fisher, esteemed Jewish rabbi in California-Nevada ElizaBeth Webb Beyer, well-respected Senior United Methodist Pastor Dawn M. Blundell; in a joint statement, said that AI should be used responsibly and religions should be involved and given active role in developing appropriate and adequate moral-ethical guardrails around it, before it changes our way of life. Blake, Karcher, Zed, Fisher, Beyer, Blundell emphasize that since sentient machines are no longer unthinkable and there are claims of the possibility of developing sentient AI systems in the future; technologies seem to be venturing into God's arena which can create serious spiritual implications. Tech should not be in the business of simply discarding overnight the thousands of years of wisdom of the texts. Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, points out that if machines become completely sentient having consciousness, it is a serious theological issue. An urgent and honest global conversation is needed (with religions as the major partner) before the self-aware machines become game changers and reshape humanity.

IMAGE: The first drug-candidate compounds targeting age-related diseases discovered using AI are licensed for development. Jan.6, 2018, Baltimore, Maryland- Insilico Medicine, Inc. ("Insilico"), a Baltimore-based next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in the application of deep learning for drug discovery, announces that Juvenescence.AI, its joint venture with Juvenescence Limited ("Juvenescence"), has licensed its first compound family for clinical development. This is one of five compound families that Juvenescence.AI is able to license each year under its license agreement with Insilico. "The selection of our first compound family is a landmark event for Juvenescence, and a broader comment on the potential of AI to transform the drug discovery and development industry" commented Jim Mellon, Chairman of Juvenescence. This deal is a result of a deep collaboration between the senior drug developers at Juvenescence and AI experts at Insilico and signifies a new era in drug discovery where highly sophisticated AI finds viable drug candidates.