The Institute for Religion and Science is sponsoring a series of lectures dealing with Artificial Intelligence and Robotics from the perspective of science and religion. Speakers include Philip Hefner, PhD, Noreen Herzfeld, PhD, and Anne Foerst, ThD. Each event is free and open to the public and will be held online beginning at 7pm ET.
“The Greatest Challenge: The Created Co-Creator Creates a Co-Creator”
With Anne Foerst, PhD
Professor for Computer Science
St. Bonaventure University
March 21, 2023
Online at 7pm ET
Humans have the tendency to treat anything that interacts with them as a person and we have the universal tendency to anthropomorphize. At the same time though, we are willing to treat humans as non-persons for which each genocide or war is an example. The new crop of Artificial Intelligences falls right into this tension. I will discuss some robot projects as well as the newest chatbots to explore if we could assign personhood to these results of human ingenuity based on the theological concept of the Imago Dei.
Dr. Anne Foerst has a Ph.D. in theology but works as Professor for Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University. Her research interests lie in the personhood of robots and computer and cybersecurity ethics. Her latest book “Cybersecurity and Hacking Ethics” was just published by Kendall-Hunt.
Register here.
Chestnut Hill College's Institute for Reliigion and Science is committed to nurturing the constructive engagement of Religion/Spirituality and Science/Technology, and to promoting a dialogue that is interfaith and multi-science. It aims to stimulate interdisciplinary thinking and discussion in contemporary society and to foster encounters of Religion with Science by means of lectures, conferences, workshops, dialogue groups, as well as activities that support a more integrated approach to the teaching of religion and science.
Lectures are free and open to the public, though registration is required. Lectures for the spring are listed below:
The Greatest Challenge: The Created Co-Creator Createsa Co-Creator - 1/25
Alexa, Do You Love Me? AI and Authentic Relationship - 2/28
Can AI Systems be Persons? - 3/21
