Artificial Intelligence and Jesuit Formation

The fifth day considered the global ethical questions of AI, especially around its massive supply chain from mines to data centres to smartphones. The sixth day delved into relationships with AI itself, for example the potential for AI healthbots, psychologists, friends or even romantic partners. Interspersed throughout were the scientific questions of how AI actually works and the philosophical questions about the ontological and epistemological nature of AI. On the seventh day, besides resting, we evaluated the conference and explored ways of moving forward.

I had several take-home points from the conference. In general, I was overwhelmed with a sense that we need to be engaged with this new reality. It is powerful and it is changing our world. We are gifted with a spirituality that helps us find meaning in uncertainty, that guides our ethics with a view towards justice and that has faith that God is at work in it all somewhere, somehow. I sensed the invitation to get my hands dirty and enter the construction site of the modern world.

In particular, I was struck by the pervasiveness of the AI supply chain. AI is not just an app on our phone - it is cobalt mines, chip factories, water guzzling data centres, data extractors and labellers, algorithms, smartphones and e-waste. It is resources, it is human labour, it is energy. Are we aware of the environmental and human impact of the AI we use? Is AI helping us build a more just world or is it exacerbating global inequalities?