In Print: ‘The Dharma of AI: Timeless Wisdom for Digital Ethics’

Publication title

The Dharma of AI: Timeless Wisdom for Digital Ethics

Purdue author

Alok Chaturvedi

Publisher

Purdue University Press

Publication date

Dec. 15, 2025

About the book (from the publisher)

You just glanced at your phone, didn’t you? That’s exactly how algorithms draw us in. We’re living suspended between two worlds: one where AI quietly decides who gets hired, what news we see and which voices we hear — and another where millennia of human wisdom sit waiting to guide us.

After 40 years building AI systems and decades of studying dharma in Indian ashrams, author Alok Chaturvedi learned something crucial: Our digital future desperately needs our philosophical past. This isn’t another robot apocalypse book — it is an invitation to see technology through timeless wisdom made urgently relevant as artificial general intelligence approaches.

Through deeply human stories — a coder discovering her biases embedded in “neutral” algorithms, a parent watching their child disappear into endless scrolling — we explore how technology impacts us across three dimensions: Daihik (personal), Daivik (universal) and Bhautik (material). We also examine how technology carries the Three Gunas: Sattvik (clarity), Rajasik (restlessness) and Tamsik (numbness). Additionally, “The Dharma of AI” introduces the Five Guardians, which are timeless ethical principles: Ahimsa (do no harm), Satya (seek truth), Asteya (take only what’s given), Brahmacharya (consume mindfully) and Dharma (act righteously). Whether building technology, raising children or seeking authentic digital living, this book offers profound insight and practical wisdom for our most urgent conversation.

About the Purdue author

Alok Chaturvedi is a professor of management in the Mitch Daniels School of Business and a professor of computer science (courtesy). He is also director of the Institute for Social Empowerment through Entrepreneurship and Knowledge and was the founder and CEO of Simulex Inc. in Purdue Research Park. Chaturvedi led the U.S. Department of Defense’s Sentient World Simulation and received the National Training and Simulation Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

About the In Print series

To celebrate our faculty’s excellence in scholarship, Purdue Today’s weekly book series highlights faculty expertise across diverse subjects and disciplines. Find out more about the Purdue University Books Initiative and how to suggest a book for the In Print series on the Office of the Provost website. Purdue University’s Libraries and School of Information Studies’ authored books collection is available here.