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A University of Kentucky employee has been granted a religious accommodation allowing him to avoid personally using artificial intelligence at work after arguing that the technology conflicts with his humanist beliefs.
David Durman, a 45-year-old research administrator whose work includes editing grant applications and compliance, sought the accommodation after the university began encouraging employees to incorporate AI into their workflows.
But Durman had not actually been required to use AI. He told The Chronicle of Higher Education that he sought the accommodation preemptively because he was concerned its use could eventually become mandatory.
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The university approved his request on September 25 after determining the accommodation would not impose an undue burden on his department, according to the American Humanist Association (AHA), which helped him prepare it. The group says Durman's case is the first known workplace AI accommodation granted to a humanist.
Durman is not the first employee known to have obtained a religious accommodation from using AI. Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist software engineer in North Carolina, received accommodation from her employer in May after raising religious, environmental and ethical objections to the technology, according to Business Insider, which said it reviewed an email confirming the accommodation.
Durman's case, however, could provide another test of how existing workplace religious protections apply as employers embrace generative AI and some workers raise moral or religious objections to using it.
Newsweek contacted Durman, the University of Kentucky and AHA by email for further comment.
Why Did a Kentucky Employee Get a Religious Exemption From AI?
Durman has been a humanist for about 30 years and says his beliefs emphasize human well-being, flourishing and an individual's responsibility for their own decisions.
His objection is focused particularly on generative AI and large language models, rather than every piece of technology that could be described as artificial intelligence.
Durman told The Chronicle that he sees a distinction between tools such as autocorrect and generative AI because the latter can involve "the offloading of cognitive ability" and decision-making.
In a statement released by the AHA, Durman also cited AI's effects on employment, the environment and human creativity.
"As a Humanist, promoting the wellbeing and flourishing of humanity is paramount to how I live my life, and I believe that our capacity to think and reason for ourselves is worth protecting," he said.
Durman approached the AHA for help with a religious accommodation request in late August. He then met with the university's Office of Equal Opportunity in mid-September before his request was approved on September 25, according to the group.
He told The Chronicle that he had expected gaining approval to involve a bureaucratic process but that it took about a month and was "very straightforward."
The accommodation does not mean Durman can avoid all contact with AI. Religion News Service reported that the university's approval said he may still be expected to attend meetings involving AI, work with colleagues who use the technology or submit materials through sites that use it. But he is excused from personally using AI to complete his work.
How Is the University of Kentucky Using AI?
Durman's accommodation comes as AI use is rapidly expanding across American workplaces, including at the University of Kentucky.
The university's Commonwealth AI Transdisciplinary Strategy, or CATS AI, is a university-wide framework encompassing education, research, healthcare and operations. The school says it aims to expand access to AI tools and AI literacy among students, faculty and staff.
By June, the university's AI training hub had connected more than 2,000 employees across 17 colleges and centers and 50 departments and units with AI learning opportunities, according to the school. The university said it had more than 80 active training requests as it worked toward an "AI-ready workforce."
A Microsoft case study says the university has standardized around a portfolio that includes Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Dragon Copilot and GitHub Copilot. Microsoft said the school had achieved "100% deployment" for its campus, which includes more than 38,000 students and 33,000 employees.
That does not mean Durman himself was required to use those tools.
Jay Blanton, University of Kentucky spokesperson, told The Chronicle that religious accommodation requests are considered individually based on an employee's sincerely held beliefs, essential job responsibilities and the circumstances of the request.
"In this case, the university determined that an accommodation could be provided while allowing the employee to continue performing the essential functions of their position," Blanton said.
He added that accommodations may be reviewed as technology and employees' job responsibilities evolve.
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What Qualifies for a Religious Exemption at Work?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from religious discrimination and requires covered employers to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious observances and practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.
Those protections are not limited to members of traditional organized religions. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says the law also protects people with sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs.
Religious beliefs can qualify for protection even if they are uncommon, not part of a formal religious organization or held by relatively few people, according to the EEOC.
In its 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy, the Supreme Court clarified that an employer cannot establish an undue hardship simply by showing that an accommodation would impose more than a minimal cost. Instead, an employer must show that granting the accommodation would result in “substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.” The court said the assessment should take into account the particular accommodation and its practical impact in light of factors including the employer's nature, size and operating costs.
In Durman's case, the university determined that allowing him to perform his duties without personally using AI would not create an undue burden, according to the AHA.
Can Catholics Refuse to Use AI on Religious Grounds?
Durman's case comes amid a broader religious debate over the implications of AI, raising the question of whether adherents of more traditional faiths could seek similar workplace accommodations.
Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly warned that AI could threaten human dignity and human agency. In September, he said new technologies must remain “at the service of the human person” rather than becoming an “instrument of domination and injustice.” His May encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, similarly argued that AI should remain subordinate to human judgment, conscience and responsibility.
But Leo has not called on Catholics to reject AI altogether. He has acknowledged its potential benefits while arguing that its use must protect human dignity and the common good. His statements therefore do not automatically provide a blanket religious exemption from workplace AI use for Catholics.
Under the Title VII framework, the central issue would instead be whether an individual employee's opposition to using AI reflects a sincerely held religious belief and whether accommodating that belief would impose an undue hardship on the employer. The EEOC says protected beliefs can differ even among people who belong to the same religion.
Michael Naughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, previously pushed back on the suggestion that the pope's concerns amount to a general Catholic right to refuse AI.
Naughton told Business Insider that interpreting Leo's remarks to mean "I don't have to use it" in the workplace was "probably going down the wrong alley." He said the question raised by the pope was instead whether AI advances or diminishes human agency.
The issue could become increasingly important as employers make AI a more routine part of work and employees test how existing religious-accommodation law applies to the technology.
What Is a Humanist?
Humanism is a non-theistic worldview that emphasizes human agency, reason, ethics and human flourishing.
For Durman, that includes a moral responsibility to perform his own thinking and exercise his own judgment. The AHA said he argued in his accommodation request that personally using generative AI and large language models conflicted with those deeply held beliefs.
Opposition to AI is not a tenet shared by all humanists. It says humanists hold a range of views about how to respond to AI and that individuals should be able to follow their conscience.
Durman has similarly stopped short of arguing that other workers should reject the technology. He told The Chronicle that he was not trying to tell other people what to do, but hoped his experience would encourage people concerned about AI to investigate accommodations or other solutions.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Edward T. Cummins
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