Yale Club of DC 2026 Annual Dinner

Ethics in Artificial Intelligence Featuring Yale Professor John Pittard '13 Ph.D.

Ethical Risks of Life with Digital “Minds”

Please join us for the Yale Club of Washington, DC’s 2026 Annual Dinner at the University Club. Advances in artificial intelligence have given rise to concerns about the possibility of massive economic displacement or civilizational catastrophe brought about by highly capable AIs with aims not suitably aligned with our own. But even if these concerns are averted and AI ushers in an era of material prosperity, individuals and communities must still wrestle with serious ethical risks posed by our engagement with digital “minds.” Professor John Pittard will discuss three such risks: cognitive hollowing, relational attenuation, and misjudging the moral standing of AIs. Assessing these risks requires addressing longstanding philosophical questions about the nature of a flourishing human life and the grounds of consciousness.

John Pittard, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Yale Divinity School, is a philosopher specializing in epistemology and the philosophy of religion. Several of his publications focus on questions concerning the rational significance of disagreement with informed and intelligent interlocutors. His book, Disagreement, Deference, and Religious Commitment (Oxford University Press, 2019), assesses the challenge that religious disagreement poses to confident religious (or irreligious) commitment. Much of Pittard’s recent and ongoing work explores skeptical challenges facing both religious and secular worldviews. Other recent work addresses ethical questions posed by increasingly capable AI systems.