One Among Zeroes |0100| – How AI and Religion Shape the Future

How do people imagine and create the future through both AI and Islam? One Among Zeroes |0100| explores this question by examining how Muslim communities in Southeast Asia engage with artificial intelligence—not just as users, but as active participants in shaping its trajectory. While much of the global AI conversation is driven by Western tech giants, Chinese state models, or European regulations, this project shifts the focus to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, where religion and digitalization often intersect in unique ways.

Futures are not just built by engineers and policymakers—they are co-created by everyday users. In Muslim Southeast Asia, AI applications are debated in mosques, discussed on social media, and integrated into daily religious and mundane practices. From automated religious apps and prompting the perfect Islamic image to ethical concerns about AI-driven governance, these interactions reveal how people make sense of AI through faith, ethics, and culturally specific ideas of the future.

Our project investigates the ethical dilemmas that arise when emergent technologies and Islam meet. What happens when automated decision-making challenges religious authority? How do AI-driven predictions align or clash with religious understandings of what it means to be human? And what can shifting our perspective away from the Global North reveal about alternative digital futures?

Through ethnographic research, digital analysis, and historical studies of future-making, One Among Zeroes uncovers how AI is imagined, used, and debated in Muslim societies. Using multimedia storytelling—infographics, comics, and performances—we bring these findings to life for scholars, policymakers, and the wider public.

Funded by an NWO Vici Award, One Among Zeroes |0100| (2021–2026) highlights the voices of those often left out of mainstream AI debates, offering fresh insights into the intersection of technology, ethics, and religion.