University of Notre Dame wants to help steer AI use toward faith-based ethics  

The University of Notre Dame has announced that it intends to develop faith-based frameworks to encourage ethical uses of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The announcement comes as modern Western societies increasingly grapple with this fast-developing technology, including Pope Francis speaking out earlier this year of the responsibility that political leaders have to ensure AI is used ethically.

Notre Dame, one of the preeminent Catholic universities in the United States, located in South Bend, Indiana, announced on 10 October that it has been awarded a $539,000 grant to develop the frameworks – a process that will begin with a one-year planning project.

The development of the frameworks will be led by the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. Meghan Sullivan, the institute’s director, said that “this is a pivotal moment for technology ethics”.

“AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] is developing quickly and has the potential to change our economies, our systems of education and the fabric of our social lives,” Sullivan, who is also the university’s Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy, said in a statement.

“We believe that the wisdom of faith traditions can make a significant contribution to the development of ethical frameworks for AGI.”

According to an announcement from the university, the one-year planning project will engage with and build a network of leaders in higher education and technology, as well as those of different faiths, to broach the topic of ethical uses of AI, and eventually create the faith-based ethical frameworks.

“This project will encourage broader dialogue about the role that concepts such as dignity, embodiment, love, transcendence and being created in the image of God should play in how we understand and use this technology,” Sullivan said.

“These concepts – as the bedrock of many faith-based traditions – are vital for how we advance the common good in the era of AGI.”

The project will culminate in September 2025 with a conference that will focus on the most pressing faith-based issues relating to the proliferation of AGI and provide training and networking opportunities for leaders who attend, states the university.

According to 2024 statistics from National University – a private university in San Diego, California – already 77 per cent of companies are either using or exploring the use of AI/AGI in their businesses, and 83 per cent of companies claim that the technology is a top priority in their future plans.

A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that increasing numbers of Americans reported regularly using AI/AGI.

Pope Francis made his comments about artificial intelligence this past June in an address to G7 leaders gathered for a summit in southern Italy. In his remarks, the pontiff emphasised that AI must only be used to benefit humanity, and called political leaders to mitigate its risks.

“We cannot allow a tool as powerful and indispensable as artificial intelligence to reinforce such a (technocratic) paradigm, but rather, we must make artificial intelligence a bulwark against its expansion,” Pope Francis said. “This is precisely where political action is urgently needed.”

David Go, vice president and associate provost of academic strategy at Notre Dame, says the framework development project “will enable us to convene a diverse group of technology experts, scholars, and religious leaders for important conversations about artificial general intelligence and all the ways it could impact our society”.

He adds: “As a leading global Catholic research university, Notre Dame has a special obligation to address the most significant ethical questions of the day through scholarship, education, and public engagement.”

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Photo: Central part of the University of Notre Dame campus; detail from University of Notre Dame @NotreDame.

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