The University of Notre Dame has been awarded a $539,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support Faith-Based Frameworks for AI Ethics, a one-year planning project that will engage and build a network of leaders in higher education, technology and a diverse array of faith-based communities focused on developing faith-based ethical frameworks and applying them to emerging debates around artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is a field of research aimed at developing and deploying software with the ability to rival human capacities for self-organized learning, creativity and generalized reasoning. This project will be led by the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG).

“This is a pivotal moment for technology ethics,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of ECG and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative. “AGI is developing quickly and has the potential to change our economies, our systems of education and the fabric of our social lives. We believe that the wisdom of faith traditions can make a significant contribution to the development of ethical frameworks for AGI.

“This project will encourage broader dialogue about the role that concepts such as dignity, embodiment, love, transcendence and being created in the image of God should play in how we understand and use this technology. These concepts — at the bedrock of many faith-based traditions — are vital for how we advance the common good in the era of AGI.”

Notre Dame has the conviction that faith-based ethical frameworks are vital to the ethical development and deployment of these new technologies, Sullivan added. Faith-Based Frameworks for AI Ethics will seek to establish a unique and influential network of scholars, technology industry leaders and faith leaders to create, study and disseminate complementary faith-based ethical frameworks to meet this era of profound disruption.

This project will include asset mapping to identify and recruit key participants across the three sectors, focus groups to determine common faith-based and ethical commitments and priorities, and a landscape analysis to inform subsequent steps for coordinating participants and catalyzing this work. The project will culminate in a major conference in September 2025 that will focus on the most pressing faith-based issues relating to the proliferation of AGI and provide training and networking opportunities for leaders who attend.

“We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for this support, which will enable us to convene a diverse group of technology experts, scholars and religious leaders for important conversations about artificial general intelligence and all the ways it could impact our society,” said David Go, vice president and associate provost for academic strategy. “As a leading global Catholic research university, Notre Dame has a special obligation to address the most significant ethical questions of the day through scholarship, education and public engagement, and this conference will enable our University-wide Ethics Initiative to engage others in doing just that.”

The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good facilitates interdisciplinary research in foundational and applied ethics, coordinates projects that cross departments and units and supports ethics-related education and public engagement efforts. ECG is a signature element of the Ethics Initiative, which aims to establish Notre Dame as a premier global destination for the study of ethics, offering superb training for future generations of ethicists and moral leaders, a platform for engaging the Catholic moral tradition with other modes of inquiry and an opportunity to forge insights into some of the most significant ethical issues of our time.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu