Franciscan University in the Washington Examiner: Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Human Soul

In a nationally published opinion piece for the Washington Examiner, Dr. Fernanda Psihas, professor of physics and computer science at Franciscan University of Steubenville, explores the urgent ethical and spiritual questions surrounding artificial intelligence. Drawing a striking parallel between today’s AI revolution and the moral reckoning that followed the development of nuclear weapons, Dr. Psihas calls on society to consider not just what AI can do, but what it may cost us if we fail to safeguard the dignity of the human person.

“The backwards trend of humanizing what is not human can easily dehumanize what is. The only solution is a recognition of the uniqueness and value of true human connection. Society is painfully learning what Christianity already knows: that our humanity can be mimicked but never replicated. We often hear about Hollywood-esque apocalyptic dangers of a future general intelligence taking over humanity. There is a far greater danger facing us if we don’t take seriously the spiritual consequences of our engagement with these technologies. If we don’t explain what AI is and what it isn’t, we may one day look back and realize that we did not lose control of AI, but of ourselves.  The Hiroshima of AI may unfold not in shockwaves and fallout to be measured in lives lost but in a silent devastation of love unspoken, community abandoned, and the slow forgetting of what it means to be human, made in the image and likeness of God.”

Read the whole article on the Washington Examiner.