The Catholic Union held a well-attended webinar on Monday 19 October to explore how AI can enhance human experience rather than lessen it. Chaired by Catherine Pepinster, journalist, attendees heard from Fr Michael Baggot(Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum), Andrea Cabanas (Chair of Catholics in Tech)and Sam Monaghan (Chief Executive of Methodist Homes Association).
Father Michael focused on three main areas: healthcare, education and evangelisation. Sam Monaghan drew on practical experience of AI tools used in care homes and the importance of safeguards in terms of proliferate, operational realities and ethics. Andrea said that our real meaning, as children of God, makes us secure and that we have the opportunity to use AI to build technologies for the good of humanity.
Following some short presentations, Catherine steered the conversation to a thoughtful discussion, weaving in questions from attendees. The panel concluded that products of human intelligence do not have the same goals, needs and values as human beings, but they can be used as collaborative tools under the guidance of humans.
Father Michael encouraged priests to use any number of tools, including AI where appropriate, to find resources that enable exploration of different perspectives that help bring to prayer, reflection and discern what message from the body of wisdom is most appropriate for his congregation at a point in time. He warned that AI was not a replacement for a priest’s own prayer and reflection. In a similar way, he said that educators needed to think not only about the products, but also the process their students employed and perhaps develop different forms of evaluation rather than all written based work.
Sam Monaghan said that fundamentally people needed care from other people, but that AI had been shown to be beneficial for a number of administrative tasks and also spoke of Paincheck, an AI powered digital medical device used in care homes to evaluate pain. He emphasised the need for continuous review and overview of safeguards.
Andrea spoke about the need to hold companies accountable and find ways to make environmentally sustainable means. The good of our common home not simply for profit. She also discussed how AI was business driven and if we wanted to seek to make the best use and curb the worst excesses of it there was a huge moral challenge.
The Catholic Union thanks the panellists for their time, insight and expertise. A recording of the webinar can be found here.