AI: What’s Really at Stake

Lecture from Rick Campanelli | November 15, 2023

“For Christians, we have a particular requirement upon us. We are not permitted to duck our heads in the sand, and neither are we to be people of despair. What does it mean in this context to have hope?”

- Rick Campanelli

Rick Campanelli, a UVA Batten School Lecturer who focuses on the ethics of disruptive technologies, and the Study Center’s Graduate Ministries Director, describes what is disruptive about the AI waves just starting to crest, how AI will intersect with biotech and other accelerating technologies, and their implications for human flourishing. Listen to the recording below!

  • "There's a hunger in this world for a moral basis to respond."

  • "Is progress itself self-proving as good, or does it come with an optimism about who we are as people that we have to be careful with?"

  • "What does [AI programmed 'empathy'] do to our understanding of human nature and human dignity?"

AILecture-2.jpg
AILecture-6.jpg

Meet the Speaker: Rick Campanelli

Rick Campanelli, J.D., served in senior law and public policy positions on issues spanning healthcare, genetics, privacy, human rights and religious freedom. He teaches Ethics & Public Policy at the University of Virginia, focusing on the ethical and policy implications of emerging technologies, and serves as Director of Graduate Ministries for the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, Virginia. His career includes public service in senior positions at the U.S. Departments of Health & Human Services (HHS), Justice, and State, including serving as Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, and then as Counselor to the Secretary for Science & Public Health – where he was responsible for policy issues relating to the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the CDC. He is a member of the board of directors of the Christian Legal Society, and speaks at national conferences on ethics and technology, privacy, and human dignity, and on religious freedom and First Amendment issues.