"What can I help with?" Human Dignity in the Age of AI
Monday, February 24 through Thursday, March 6, 2025
SUMMIT MISSION STATEMENT
Addiction is an often misunderstood yet pervasive issue in our community as well as communities around us. Addiction isn't limited to harmful substances–such as drugs and alcohol–but can also include unhealthy behaviors like excessive social media use and sports betting. The effects of addiction, which can seem inconsequential or distant from ourselves, can negatively affect our friends, family, and ourselves in ways which we may not realize. Yet the nature of addiction is often stigmatized and misconstrued, making it more difficult for those in need to seek help.
Guided by our Jesuit identity and our Catholic faith, this Summit aims to: engage the Brophy community in healthy discussions about our own unhealthy attachments; develop a more nuanced understanding of addictive behaviors and their effects; recognize the ways that addiction and addictive products can disproportionately impact vulnerable individuals and communities; and empower us to seek and offer support to sow hope for those who may be struggling.
We are so fortunate every spring to engage in the Brophy Summit on Human Dignity, an event far more likely to exist on a college campus than at a high school. The range of topics we have examined in the past seventeen years is impressive – the death penalty, immigration, war, globalization, the environment, food, income inequality, masculinity, race, restorative justice, violence, democracy, the commodification of the human person, health, water, racism, disinformation, and debt – all through the lens of human dignity.
It takes months of planning and many hands to create this event. We invite you to approach it with an open heart, a curious mind, and a desire to discern how God’s will for justice and the fullness of human life calls you to future action, and to critically examine the actions you already engage in on a daily basis. This year’s summit will address four important questions related to the premise of Artificial Intelligence and Emergent Technologies.
1. How do we adopt innovations in A.I. while not sacrificing human dignity and the fullness of what it means to be a human created in the image of God?
2. In what ways can A.I. reinforce or challenge equity, bias, or justice in society?
3. What ethical responsibilities do individuals, corporations, and governments have in ensuring that A.I. serves humanity rather than harms it?
4. How can we, as students and future leaders, critically engage with A.I. and emergent technologies to promote human dignity and the common good?