THREE SESSIONS - ONE SUMMIT
When registering for the summit, please select the session you will be attending. This will help our team plan for a great day of learning.
⏰ AI x Responsibility – 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
What does faithfulness look like in this moment?
From sermon preparation to student engagement to administrative tasks, artificial intelligence is quietly becoming part of everyday ministry.
Join us for a conversation with Thomas Osborn of AI & Faith, designed for pastors, campus ministry leaders, lay leaders, and all who care about the future of the Church. Together, we’ll explore how AI can serve ministry practically—while helping leaders navigate technology responsibly and faithfully.
This event invites consideration of the opportunities and limitations of emerging technologies, as well as the spiritual guardrails that should guide their use, and how AI may shape our call to form people in the way of Christ.
Thomas Osborn is the founder of DiscipleIQ, and co-founder of AI & Faith, and an advisor to ventures and ministries using technology to enhance discipleship. He helps church leaders thoughtfully integrate technology to support spiritual growth and transformation.
⏰ AI x Humanity – 3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
How should artificial intelligence shape our understanding of what it means to be human?
As AI advances rapidly, questions about its ethical, cultural, and social implications are more urgent than ever.
Join us for a public panel featuring experts in philosophy, history, communications, and ethics as they explore how AI intersects with meaning, knowledge, and human values. The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty will engage in rich dialogue on not just what AI can do—but what it should do, and how communities can shape its influence with insight, care, and awareness.
The event will feature a moderated discussion, as well as a space for audience questions and dialogue.
Our moderator will be Jeremy Morris, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he also serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty.
Featured Speakers:
• Catalina Toma is a Professor of Communication Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Associate Editor of Computers in Human Behavior. Her research examines how people understand and relate to one another through communication technologies, focusing on the social and psychological dynamics of digital interaction.
• John J. Curtin is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on substance use disorders and other mental health conditions, advancing innovative, technology-based approaches to prevention and treatment.
• James Goodrich is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research centers on normative ethics, with particular attention to the intersection of political philosophy and economics and the moral questions that arise within public policy and markets.
• Courtney Bell is a Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Her work focuses on understanding and improving teaching, especially in ways that better serve historically underserved children.
⏰ AI x Faith – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
What happens when machines begin to speak, respond, and even “care” as we do?
Join us for an evening of exploration into the profound questions at the heart of today’s AI revolution with theologian and computer scientist Noreen Herzfeld. Drawing from her acclaimed book, The Artifice of Intelligence, Herzfeld will examine how artificial intelligence challenges our understanding of human uniqueness, the image of God, and what it means to love our neighbors in an increasingly digital world.
Rather than asking whether AI can truly think or feel, Herzfeld reframes the conversation around the core of Christian faith: relationships, embodiment, and responsibility. With clarity, humor, and real-world examples—from chatbots to care robots—she will demonstrate how emerging technologies are subtly reshaping our relationships and why Christians must pay attention to these shifts.
Noreen Herzfeld is Director of the Benedictine Spirituality and Ecotheology Program at St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary and Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies (ZRS) in Koper, Slovenia. She is the author of The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic World (2023), In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (2002), and Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (2009). She also serves on the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture of the Vatican Dicastery of Culture and Education, for which she co-wrote and edited Encountering AI: Ethical and Anthropological Explorations (2024).