Prof. Robby Abror: Philosophy as the Guardian of Common Sense, Critical Reasoning, and Sanity
Opening the discussion, the Dean of FUPI UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Prof. Dr. H. Robby Habiba Abror, M.Hum., emphasized that religion and philosophy are vital and will not perish in this era of Imitation Intellect (AI), despite growing technological challenges. In his presentation, Prof. Robby warned of the phenomenon of "cognitive offloading," where humans currently tend to surrender critical thinking tasks and moral decisions to machines or algorithms.
Prof. Robby observed that a tendency toward mental laziness and existential issues, such as loss of identity, can affect anyone. He warned that if we constantly engage in offloading, humans will lose "brain sovereignty" and, subsequently, autonomy. He noted two waves of new consciousness: first, "Digital Detox," such as movements to turn off phones or go camping with friends without gadgets, which he argued is insufficient to overcome cognitive offloading.
According to him, we need a second wave of consciousness: "AI Detachment." This is an attitude of maintaining distance from devices, tablets, and social media, and refusing to simply hand over our thinking processes or autonomy to machines or AI technology. “Through philosophy, we can think critically and must refuse to surrender our intellectual autonomy to machines,” he explained. Furthermore, he stated, “AI can answer anything logically, rationally, and textually (burhani and bayani), but AI lacks conscience, feelings, and irfani (gnostic/intuitive) capabilities.”
Prof. Syafaatun Almirzanah: The Irreplaceable Spiritual Side
Professor of Religious Studies (SAA), Prof. Syafaatun Almirzanah, Ph.D., D.Min., took the discussion into the deeper realm of spirituality. She highlighted various phenomena in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) that raise concerns about AI replacing human roles based on empathy. However, according to her, there is one domain sterile from the reach of AI: the "religious experience" or spiritual feeling.
Prof. Syafaatun argued that in the traditions of mysticism and Sufism, the highest knowledge is achieved through the purification of the soul (tazkiyatun nafs), not merely the accumulation of data. “AI can write poetry about God, but it cannot long for God. Religion must re-emphasize this esoteric aspect so that humans do not feel inferior in the face of artificial intelligence,” she asserted.
Prof. Dr. Moch. Fakhruroji: The Death of Traditional Expertise
From the perspective of new media and communication, Prof. Dr. Moch. Fakhruroji highlighted the fundamental shift of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from a mere tool to a digital infrastructure that disrupts daily life, marking the transition from the Internet of Things (IoT) to the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). He emphasized the perspective of technological determinism, where technology now actively shapes culture, individual identity, and power structures in society. He also issued a crucial warning by quoting Neil Postman regarding the danger of societies that begin to “worship technology that numbs their capacity to think,” an irony amidst data showing that while 54% of executives acknowledge productivity gains thanks to AI, there is a high risk of automation for 38% of jobs by the early 2030s.
Furthermore, Fakhruroji dissected how society performs the “domestication of technology,” a process of adopting and integrating technology into routines through stages of appropriation, objectification, incorporation, and conversion. This phenomenon leads to "deep mediatization," where social life becomes increasingly inseparable from the digital infrastructure and databases that support it. In this participatory cultural ecosystem, the public is no longer just passive consumers but contributors to "collective intelligence," even as 88% of consumers now demand higher transparency from businesses regarding the use of AI-powered bots to maintain ethical boundaries in human-machine interaction.
Dr. Ir. Dimitri Mahayana: AI Lacks Consciousness
The final perspective came from ITB technology and philosophy of science expert, Ir. Dimitri Mahayana, M.Eng., Ph.D. With a strong engineering background, Dimitri debunked the myth that AI will possess consciousness like a human. Citing Gödel's incompleteness theorems and the views of Roger Penrose, Dimitri explained that computation is merely the manipulation of symbols, not the understanding of meaning.
“No matter how sophisticated Large Language Models (LLM) like GPT become, they are merely highly intelligent ‘stochastic parrots.’ They do not possess qualia or subjective experience. The fear that AI will become a conscious ‘being’ is scientifically unfounded, but the danger of its misuse by humans is very real,” Dimitri explained.
The technology expert from STEI ITB deconstructed the illusion of consciousness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by asserting that AI is merely a mathematical function that manipulates data, not an entity with a mind, intention, or feelings. Dimitri emphasized that the phenomenon of “hallucination” in AI is a natural consequence of how probabilistic algorithms work, noting that surveys show 60% of users in Indonesia have received AI answers that were highly convincing but factually incorrect. He warned of the danger of anthropomorphism—the human tendency to attribute living qualities to machines—when in reality, AI is just a “data statue” working solely on statistical calculations without an understanding of meaning.
Furthermore, Dimitri highlighted the real impact of massive but immature AI adoption, ranging from the emergence of "workslop"—digital content waste that looks good but lacks substance—to cognitive dependence, where 48% of respondents now choose to use AI rather than exert their own effort. Amidst estimates of hundreds of trillions of rupiah flowing abroad for paid AI services, he called for the urgency of strict governance, algorithmic transparency, and dataset audits to prevent “data poisoning” that could permanently disrupt cybersecurity systems and information integrity in the future.
Attended by hundreds of students both offline and online, the event proceeded smoothly and successfully, answering many questions regarding Artificial Intelligence / Imitation Intellect (AI). This national seminar in the form of an Experts Talk will be further enhanced next year. The event can be rewatched via the following YouTube link: