The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) established a council focused on artificial intelligence (AI) ethics. The council's primary goal is to ensure technological innovation upholds human dignity. Inspired by the President’s Council on Bioethics, the new body seeks to balance innovation with prudence and freedom with responsibility. Anthony Mills, director for the Center for Technology, Science, and Energy at AEI, announced the council's purpose during its launch event on February 23rd. The council intends to offer practical resources to guide AI development.
12 days ago
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) launched a new Council on AI Ethics on February 23, 2026, aimed at ensuring AI innovation promotes human dignity.1
Inspired by the President’s Council on Bioethics, the council seeks to balance technological progress with prudence, freedom, and responsibility.1
Anthony Mills, director of AEI’s Center for Technology, Science, and Energy, leads the interdisciplinary team.1
Members hail from diverse philosophical traditions, including secular, religious, liberal, and conservative viewpoints, such as Roman Catholic theologian Brian Boyd from Loyola University New Orleans.1
The council prioritizes debate over consensus to address complex AI ethics in a divided society.1
It targets a broad audience beyond lawmakers and experts, including business leaders, parents, teachers, and community figures facing daily AI challenges.1
Panelists at the launch event shared personal motivations.1
Brian Boyd emphasized safeguarding a future aligned with human nature for children and families.1
Matthew Crawford highlighted anthropological and political economy concerns, viewing AI as intensifying existing trends.1
Nita Farahany focused on using AI to enhance autonomy, purpose, and human intellect while advocating policy interventions.1
The council's guiding document draws from traditions like Aristotle and Augustine, emphasizing transcultural human capabilities and self-determination.1
It explores what it means to author one's thoughts and direct one's life amid AI advancements.1
Assess how Catholic teachings define human dignity in AI ethics
Catholic doctrine defines human dignity as an inalienable gift from God, rooted in humanity's creation in the image and likeness of God (imago Dei). This dignity is not conferred by external factors like achievements, technology, or societal status but is intrinsic, originating directly from the Creator. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches:
Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.
This dignity encompasses the whole person—body and soul—and is fulfilled through free deliberate actions oriented toward divine beatitude and moral good. Man and woman share this dignity equally, reflecting God's wisdom and goodness in their distinct beings. Even atheism's denial of dependence on God fails to undermine it, for "such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God."
In AI ethics, Catholic teachings emphasize that technology, including AI, must serve and never supplant human dignity. AI is a product of human intelligence—itself a God-given gift—not an equivalent or rival to it. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith's Antiqua et Nova clarifies:
AI should not be seen as an artificial form of human intelligence but as a product of it.
Pope Leo XIV echoes this, warning that AI's development must not "undermine the identity and dignity of the human person and his or her fundamental freedoms." It functions as a "tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them, not to replace them," prioritizing personal life over algorithms and human memory's creative dynamism.
Recent papal interventions reinforce human control as essential to preserving dignity. Pope Francis, in his G7 address, stated: "We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: human dignity itself depends on it." Without this, AI risks imposing "uniform anthropological, socio-economic and cultural models," fostering a "technocratic paradigm" that excludes transcendent truths. Similarly, his message for the Paris AI Summit (2025) highlights AI's potential "fearsome" side as a threat to dignity if lacking oversight, contrasting algorithms' manipulability with the irreplaceable human "heart."
Catholic sources outline principles ensuring AI upholds dignity:
Primacy of the Human Person: AI must supplement, not replace, human moral judgment and relationships. The USCCB's AI Principles affirm: "The inherent dignity of every human person must always be at the center of technological development... AI is a tool that... should supplement what human beings do, not replace them or their moral judgments."
Common Good and Subsidiarity: AI's ends, means, and vision must promote fraternity, justice, and the vulnerable. Antiqua et Nova insists on evaluation "to ensure they respect human dignity and promote the common good," with "the intrinsic dignity of every man and every woman" as "the key criterion." Voices of the poor must shape regulation.
Care for the Vulnerable and Truth: Avoid exacerbating inequalities or "cognitive pollution" like deepfakes. AI can democratize knowledge but risks a "throwaway culture" if misused.
Ethical Regulation: Call for binding international treaties, human oversight (e.g., banning lethal autonomous weapons), and ethics rooted in human vocation.
Therefore, AI, like any technology, can be part of a conscious and responsible answer to humanity’s vocation to the good. However... AI must be directed by human intelligence to align with this vocation, ensuring it respects the dignity of the human person.
Controversies arise from AI's ambivalence: excitement for advances (e.g., medicine, sustainability) versus fears of dehumanization, job loss, or warfare. Sources agree recent magisterial teachings (e.g., Pope Leo XIV, 2025; Antiqua et Nova) take precedence, urging "healthy politics" for oversight. No source endorses transhumanism; all subordinate AI to spiritual maturity and relational communion.
In summary, Catholic teachings define human dignity as God-imprinted, relational, and free, positioning AI ethics as a safeguard: technology must enhance, not erode, this dignity through human-directed, common-good-oriented use. This framework calls for vigilant ethical discernment to ensure AI serves humanity's transcendent end.