David Durman, a University of Kentucky administrator and nontheistic Humanist, has secured a religious exemption from using AI in the workplace — a first for someone whose beliefs are not rooted in theism1,2.
Durman told TechCrunch that Humanism centers on human well-being and flourishing, both individually and collectively, and that it calls on adherents to improve their own well-being and that of others around them. He argued that AI use conflicts with those principles. The way people become moral actors, he said, is through the active application of their minds, and diminishing that capacity through AI use would necessarily have a negative impact on the ability to do so.
As AI tools became more prevalent, Durman sought guidance from the American Humanist Association, a nonprofit that advances secular humanism, to explore legal protections against mandatory AI use at work. The resulting exemption appears to be the first granted on humanist grounds.
TechCrunch noted that Pope Leo XIV has criticized AI as a threat to human dignity, framing Durman's case as evidence that concern about AI's compatibility with deeply held beliefs extends beyond traditional religious communities. The story drew significant attention on Hacker News, collecting 210 points and 234 comments.
ANALYSIS The exemption tests whether U.S. workplace-accommodation law, which already covers sincerely held nontheistic beliefs, can serve as a durable mechanism for individuals to opt out of employer-mandated AI tools — a question that grows more pointed as organizations push AI adoption across administrative and knowledge-work roles.