ITEST Webinar
Bioethics and AI as Human Flourishing:
Where Catholic and Orthodox Social Teaching meet in One Christian Social Ethos
Saturday, June 14, 2025
7:00 am – 9:00 am (Pacific)
8:00 am – 10:00 am (Mountain)
9:00 am – 11:00 am (Central)
10:00 am – noon (Eastern)
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Rome, GMT+2)
Register at the bottom of this page for this webinar.
There is no fee for this webinar.
Donations are appreciated.
Our presenters
Dr. Constantine Psimopoulos
Presentation Title
(COMING SOON)
Constantine aka ‘Kosti’ Psimopoulos is a Kinesiologist by training and a bioethicist. He joined the faculty of Harvard’s Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion, of which he is also Senior Program Administrator, and the Human Flourishing program in 2024. He also holds an academic teaching position (Fellow) in the Department of Systems Biology at HMS, Scientific Citizenship Initiative, funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), tasked with developing ethics training modules and a new curriculum employing simulation-based pedagogy for genetics researchers and future scientists at the Medical School. He has another Academic research appointment in Global Health and Social Medicine and the Center for Bioethics at HMS, and finally a third appointment as a Course Developer (Course Development Fellow) in a new joint HMS/HSPH (Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) Initiative on Racism in Health and Scientific Research. Constantine is married and has a son and a daughter. His hobbies include learning new foreign languages (Constantine can communicate in English, Greek, German, French and Italian), playing piano and guitar, and traveling around the world together with his family.
Abstract
(coming soon)
Fr. Michael Baggot
Programming with Purpose:
Guiding AI through Catholic Social Teaching
Fr. Michael Baggot is an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and an Invited Professor of Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) and the Catholic Institute of Technology (CatholicTech). He also serves as a professor for the Joint Diploma in Leadership: Service through Virtues and the Catholic Worldview Fellowship summer program. In addition, Baggot is a Research Scholar at the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and a member of the Scholarly Advisory Board for Magisterium AI. He is also a fellow of the Fr. James L. Heft, SM Generations in Dialogue program at the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California.
Abstract
As an expert in humanity, the Catholic Church is deeply interested in the AI technologies that are shaping family life, education, medicine, religious practice, and other key aspects of social life. The presentation draws on the social doctrine of the Catholic Church to highlight the virtues and social structures most conducive to using AI tools to promote human flourishing. It gives special attention to the influence of AI companion systems on the loneliness epidemic and the quest for social connections. The conference also examines the significance of ecumenical dialogue, interreligious dialogue, and dialogue with secular traditions in addressing the perennial philosophical questions that emerging technologies raise.
