In her new book, “God in the Machine,” self-described robotics theologian Anne Foerst seeks to bridge the divide between religion and AI research–by arguing that robots have much to teach us about ourselves and our relationship with God.

“Like babies, or Alzheimer’s patients, humanoid robots don’t tell their own stories, but they play a role in our lives so we include them in our narrative structures,” she says. “This suggests that perhaps we ought to think about treating robots right.”