Photo: Speakers and participants at the AI, Ethics and Morality Workshop, Lambeth Palace
This event took place on the 20th June at Lambeth Palace, a stunning venue for the workshop! Sessions discussed the challenges and opportunities of AI in a technical sense and then broadened out into the ethical, moral and theological conversation. Our objective was to act as colloquium of different views and ideas in this topic domain to create a transdisciplinary community of practice that can produce a synthesis of ethics, technology and theology so as to inform technologists, policymakers and religious leaders on the role, practice and policy of accountable, responsible and transparent artificial intelligence.
During the morning, with Charles Larkin chairing, we heard from Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, Katrin Hatzinger, Director of the Brussels office of the Protestant Church, Germany, Michael Burdett, Associate Professor of Christian Theology, University of Nottingham and Esther Reed, Professor of Theological Ethics, Department of Classic and Ancient History, University of Exeter. This was then followed by an interesting and lively panel discussion.
After lunch we heard from Peter Phillips, Tutor/Director, Centre for Digital Theology, Spurgeons College, Isaac Sharp, Director of Online and Part-time Programs and Visiting Assistant Professor, Union Theological Seminary, New York and Simeon Xu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Ethics of AI, University of Edinburgh. This was again followed by a panel discussion with Charles Larkin closing the day.
We would like to thank all the speakers and participants for contributing to the workshop and making it a success. To quote some of the speakers, “It was so great to meet the group of amazing people you managed to bring together” and “It was really a productive and inspiring event.” Participants said “It was a great workshop and full of excellent discussions. Very happy to be part of it” and “Wonderful workshop in a beautiful setting!“.
