# University of Kentucky grants humanist employee exemption from personal AI use

_Published Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 8:23 AM EDT · AI, Policy · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![a person with their mind tied to an AI on a laptop — Primary](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5YhFNdmTHbetkCCSWfkcC5-1920-80.png)

The University of Kentucky granted research administrator David Durman a Title VII religious accommodation exempting him from personally using AI tools, Tom's Hardware reported, citing Religion News Service. Durman argued that delegating his thinking to tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot violated his humanist beliefs about moral development.

The American Humanist Association assisted his request. The accommodation still requires Durman to attend meetings and cooperate with colleagues who use AI, or submit materials to AI tools as needed.

## Sources

- [Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/secular-humanist-gets-religious-exemption-from-using-ai-argues-that-offloading-his-thinking-to-llms-violates-his-beliefs-american-humanist-association-says-its-the-first-case-of-its-kind)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/LJhZOyLOiq9tRDcDqWKJ37
Published: 2026-10-29T12:23:32.135Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-29T11:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-29T15:02:26.721Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)