Join the de Nicola Center for a conversation with Notre Dame experts on the import of Pope Leo XIV’s highly anticipated first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
Paolo Carozza (Notre Dame Law School), Paul Scherz (Department of Theology), and Rev. John Paul Kimes (Notre Dame Law School) will discuss the content and implications of the Holy Father’s reflection on the rise of artificial intelligence, which he has called “another industrial revolution . . . that pose[s] new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
About the Panelists
Paolo Carozza is professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. His expertise is in the areas of comparative constitutional law, human rights, law and development, and international law. From 2012–22 he served as the director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, an interdisciplinary, university-wide institute focusing primarily on the themes of democracy and human development. Carozza currently serves as a co-chair of the Oversight Board, an independent expert body created by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to render binding decisions and policy recommendations regarding difficult content moderation questions on Meta’s platforms.
Paul Scherz is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Professor of Theology, the ND–IBM Tech Ethics Lab Program Chair, and an affiliated faculty member of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. His work examines the intersection of theology, science, medicine, and technology, engaging topics in bioethics such as human enhancement, genetic technology, and end of life ethics. His books analyze issues like the moral formation of scientists, the role of risk in contemporary practical reason, the ethics of precision medicine, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He is a member of the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See and co-editor of Reclaiming Human Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Rev. John Paul Kimes is professor of the practice at Notre Dame Law School and the Raymond of Peñafort Fellow in Canon Law at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Prior to joining the Notre Dame Law School faculty, he served for 11 years as a canon lawyer at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was ordained in 2000 as a priest of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles after having completed his first course of studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Pope Leo XIV photo: Edgar Beltrán/The Pillar
Originally published at ethicscenter.nd.edu.