Staying Human: Being a Person in the Age of AI

Staying Human: Being a Person in the Age of AI

with Susannah Black Roberts

Join us for this online lecture and Q & A held by Together for the Common Good

The Staying Human series

We find ourselves navigating a change of era as the old is dying and the new is emerging. Amidst upheaval, fragmentation, accelerating AI, extreme inequality, and intensifying concentrations of market and state power, we can feel powerless. Yet at Together for the Common Good, we also sense a time of opportunity and that God is inviting us to participate in spiritual and civic renewal.

Serious questions lie before us: how can we restore our common life, and with the advance of artificial intelligence, how can we stay human? Remembering our friend, the late Frank Field, who embraced difficult questions with courage and honesty, we are convening Staying Human, a series of four conversation events, to help Christians respond faithfully and constructively.

The series began in February with Luke Bretherton, whose lecture recovers the memory of the commons and enclosures, and continues with Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman, who explore how the state can be reformed to help us stay human in the new era.

Being a Person in the Age of AI

Now we turn to the human person and what can be done at a personal and community level. Susannah Black Roberts will go deeper into what it means to be human, investigating practical ways in which we can preserve and cultivate our humanity in a world that threatens to make us obsolete.

Drawing on the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle, CS Lewis and Catholic Social Thought, Susannah proposes a creative Christian asceticism lived out through everyday practices to challenge the dopamine rush of an AI-flooded world.

Susannah's editorial role at Plough, combined with her extensive knowledge of fast-developing AI technologies, gives her a unique overview of the field. A passionate Christian sensibility and positive creativity fuel her determination to marry deep thinking with the practical realities of big city life in the new era.

We have commissioned Susannah to open up a conversation that encourages church communities to take responsibility for staying human, and to engage with this fast-changing reality in the places where we worship, live and work.

Susannah Black Roberts is Senior Editor at the international magazine Plough Quarterly and an editor at Mere Orthodoxy and has written for many publications including First Things, Front Porch Republic, and The American Conservative. A native Manhattanite married to an Englishman, she lives between New York and the West Midlands in the UK.

REGISTER YOUR PLACE NOW

We look forward to you joining online!

Hosted by Jenny Sinclair, Founder and Director of Together for the Common Good, the event will be held before a live invited audience in London, and broadcast on Riverside, a livestreaming platform. You will be invited to submit questions during the Q & A.

You will receive an email with a link to the livestream, and reminders close to the event.

SAVE THE DATE

The Staying Human series continues on 21 November: "Useless Lives" with Dan Hitchens. Full details of the whole series can be found here

This series is made possible with the support of CCLA, the leading investment manager for mission-driven organisations in UK.

This event is also supported by Plough Quarterly, a magazine of stories, ideas, and culture to inspire faith and action.

Our thanks go too to the Catholic Union of Great Britain for help in kind.