RECONSTRUCTING AL-KINDI’S EPISTEMOLOGY FOR GENERATIVE AI KNOWLEDGE VALIDATION
Abstract
One of the phenomena with a profound epistemic impact in the digital era is the emergence of generative AI. This phenomenon of generative AI is not merely used as a supportive tool; rather, it has become a new source of authority capable of replacing traditional authorities. Amidst the post-truth phenomenon and the proliferation of disinformation, the validity of knowledge produced by generative AI is still being used as a reference for truth claims. Essentially, the validity of generative AI is contingent and requires prior human verification before such knowledge can be widely consumed. This phenomenon raises epistemological concerns regarding how Islam philosophically responds to the issue of generative AI. This study offers Al-Kindi's integrative epistemology to analyze the phenomenon of generative AI in the contemporary era. Al-Kindi's thought is considered capable of reconstructing and synthesizing three sources of knowledge: reason (rationality), sense perception (empiricism), and revelation (transcendental or ethical) as an ethical and epistemic guide to formulate the criteria for validating generative AI knowledge. The method used in this study is a philosophical-analytical library research with a qualitative approach. The contribution of this article is establishing Al-Kindi's integrative epistemology as a framework for validating knowledge in generative AI. The results of this study indicate that: (1) The logical coherence criterion from Al-Kindi's principle of reason is capable of filtering out indications of AI hallucinations; (2) AI data representation (empirical input) which is prone to bias can be evaluated through Al-Kindi's principle of sense perception; and (3) In the context of digital religious and social authority, Al-Kindi's principle of revelation offers ethical considerations for the application of generative AI, ensuring that knowledge authority in the digital era can be guided by an epistemologically validated philosophical framework.
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