Magnifica Humanitas: Human Dignity in the Age of AI

Join the de Nicola Center for a conversation with University of Notre Dame experts on the import of Pope Leo XIV’s highly anticipated first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”

Listen in with moderator senior associate director of the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture Margaret McManaway as she facilitates Our Lady of Guadalupe College Professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Theology Paul Scherz ’10 Ph.D, ’14 Ph.D., professor of law Paolo Carozza, and Mark Moritz and Family Memorial Associate Professor of the Practice Rev. John Paul Kimes, both of Notre Dame Law School, in a discussion on both the content and implications of the Holy Father’s reflection on the rise of artificial intelligence, which he has called “another industrial revolution . . . that pose[s] new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”

About the Panelists

• Paolo Carozza is professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. His expertise is in the areas of comparative constitutional law, human rights, law and development, and international law. From 2012–22 he served as the director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, an interdisciplinary, university-wide institute focusing primarily on the themes of democracy and human development. Carozza currently serves as a co-chair of the Oversight Board, an independent expert body created by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to render binding decisions and policy recommendations regarding difficult content moderation questions on Meta’s platforms.
• Paul Scherz ’10 Ph.D, ’14 Ph.D. is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Professor of Theology, the ND–IBM Tech Ethics Lab Program Chair, and an affiliated faculty member of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. His work examines the intersection of theology, science, medicine, and technology, engaging topics in bioethics such as human enhancement, genetic technology, and end of life ethics. His books analyze issues like the moral formation of scientists, the role of risk in contemporary practical reason, the ethics of precision medicine, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He is a member of the AI Research Group for the Centre for Digital Culture of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See and co-editor of Reclaiming Human Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
• Rev. John Paul Kimes is professor of the practice at Notre Dame Law School and the Raymond of Peñafort Fellow in Canon Law at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Prior to joining the Notre Dame Law School faculty, he served for 11 years as a canon lawyer at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was ordained in 2000 as a priest of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles after having completed his first course of studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

About the Moderator

• Margaret McManaway is the senior associate director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, ensuring that dCEC initiatives operate at the highest level and overseeing its four areas of programming: culture of life initiatives, mission stewardship, research and publications, and student formation. She previously served as the de Nicola Center’s program manager for research and publications, where she stewarded the annual Fall Conference and the dCEC’s book series with University of Notre Dame Press. McManaway received her BA from the University of the South and worked in Catholic publishing before joining the de Nicola Center staff in 2014.