AI and our humanity
On January 27, DDH will welcome Kristel Clayville and William Schweiker to discuss AI and Our Humanity. Both scholars have addressed the intersection of theological ethics and technology. The 7:00 pm forum will follow Monday dinner.
Clayville, a DDH alumna and PhD graduate of the Divinity School, is an ethicist and member of the Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current work focuses on the intersection of religion and technology, including information and biotechnologies and the ethics of organ transplants. Her 2024 Genevieve Staudt Intercultural Lecture at Elmhurst University was “Dea Ex Machina: Using Feminine Images of God to Describe AI.” She is also a Senior Fellow at the MacLean Center of Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago and the former Acting Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science. She has taught medical ethics, served as member of hospital ethics committees, and worked as a hospital chaplain.
Schweiker is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School. His scholarship and teaching engage theological and ethical questions attentive to global dynamics, comparative religious ethics, history of ethics, and hermeneutical philosophy. He will keynote an upcoming Yale Divinity School conference, "AI and the Ends of Humanity." He is the author or editor of over twenty books and more than 135 articles. He was Chief Editor of A Companion to Religious Ethics (2004) and is Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics (3 vols.). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala, and has held several international visiting professorships including as Mercator Professor at the Universität Heidelberg, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. He was President of the Society of Christian Ethics and Director and PI of The Enhancing Life Project (2014-17). Schweiker is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and theologian-in-residence at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple.