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For four days last week, tech-industry leaders joined Catholic philosophers and theologians from across the United States at 51����, California, to consider questions such as: Could the rise of artificial intelligence obviate the need for human labor? Will it undermine man’s capacity to think or exercise moral agency? And what effect will Artificial Superintelligence have on our understanding of what it means to be human, how we relate to one another, or the common good?

“AI is going to exceed the ability of your cardiologist, your architect, your doctor.”

“Such questions are no longer mere intellectual abstractions,” observed Dr. Paul J. O’Reilly, president of 51����. “They are already altering our conceptions of work, education, and leisure. But we are confident that the College, with its tradition of learned, thoughtful dialogue rooted in the teachings of the Catholic Church, is uniquely disposed to help today’s thought leaders respond to them wisely.”

And, so, participants at The Mind and the Machine — the symposium’s name, taken from the title of an AI podcast series that TAC tutor Dr. Michael Augros produced last year — grappled with both the philosophical underpinnings of the AI revolution and its practical implications. The Symposium, sponsored by , brought together speakers that spanned the gamut from AI enthusiasts to its most ardent skeptics.

“We wanted to take these questions seriously, and that means listening to a full range of viewpoints and asking the hard questions,” says Dr. John J. Goyette, the College’s vice president and the event’s organizer. “We sought to preserve a friendly, collegial atmosphere, but we never shied away from disagreement. The result was a very productive, thoughtful dialogue that was illuminating for all involved.”

Sounding an optimistic tone was Vic Gundotra, a veteran of Microsoft and Google who uses AI in all facets of his life, from offering insights about the daily Mass readings to chiming in on chats with his wife. “For those of us that use AI every day, we have a great understanding of how fast the future is coming to us and how fast the innovation is happening,” he said. “AI is going to exceed the ability of your cardiologist, your architect, your doctor. All the fields that you can think of that we used to believe were the height of human intelligence will be passed by AI in the next 12 months.”

Fellow speaker John Johnson, founder of Patmos Hosting, embraced a more skeptical approach. A graduate of St. Mary’s College and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Mr. Johnson detected a likeness between AI and the beasts foretold in Revelation 13, warning the audience to “choose what your limit is” and draw the line at any technology that’s offered “as a simple chip or implant — hand or forehead,” thereby mechanizing the human intellect.

Other speakers likewise commented on the need for clear legal and ethical parameters regulating the technology’s use, on both personal and societal levels. Dr. Augros, who is currently authoring a book on AI, stressed that humans must ensure that machines remain their tool, rather than their masters, and that human teachers are irreplaceable when it comes to inspiring the love of truth and teaching wisdom. John-Clark Levin, research lead for Ray Kurzweil, Google’s chief futurist from 2012-2025, discussed the implications of Artificial Super Intelligence, which, if properly harnessed, could lead to tremendous life-saving inventions, but — left in the wrong hands or unchecked — could give way to deadly, weaponized pandemics.

Dr. Antón Barba-Kay stressed that AI’s ability to produce intelligent human speech is prompting a crisis of meaning for human beings, who must struggle to understand what makes them unique; and the rise of AI chatbots threatens to replace the I/Thou character of authentic human communication. “What I would like to see is the Church and all of us get ahead of this question,” said Dr. Barba-Kay, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights and a distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology. “The first organization of logic was done by Aristotle, and what Alan Turing did was translate those logical operations into mathematical formulas,” added Rev. Philip Larrey, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at Boston College. “And so, yes, it is impressive what these machines can do, but it’s only logical calculations. It’s not intelligence.”

At an afternoon forum, “Human Flourishing in the Machine Age,” panelists Dr. Christopher Kaczor (Loyola Marymount University), AI researcher Mark Matthews and Dr. Matthew Peterson of FORUM contemplated topics ranging from the ethical implications of Neuralink to the effects of robotry on human work and dignity. Audience members engaged the speakers on matters that included education, both liberal and practical, and how to distinguish medical devices that simply restore human health from “transhumanist” interventions that compromise human dignity.

These conversations all complemented two Socratic seminars — modeled after the College’s classroom pedagogy — in which participants studied His Holiness Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas. “The Holy Father has called us to make sense of these questions, and his words properly grounded our deliberations,” said Dr. Goyette. “We looked at his themes, likening AI to either the Tower of Babel or the Walls of Jerusalem, examined his observation that technology inevitably contains a moral component, and focused heavily on his insistence that we regard human finitude and limitations not as defects to be overcome, but as opportunities to be drawn to others.”

In between lectures and discussions, participants made use of the College’s Santa Paula, California campus, attending Mass in the award-winning Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel; gathering for meals, cocktail and wine receptions, and a whiskey-and-cigar party; and taking in the sacred music of Floriani, a critically acclaimed choral ensemble of TAC alumni.

“It was good to find time to relax and enjoy each other’s company while also tending to the work of the Symposium,” said Dr. O’Reilly. ““While I can’t say we answered every question, we all gained a deeper understanding of the issues at hand, while answering the Holy Father’s call to address the challenges that this new technology presents.”