New Humanism at The Time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence

ethical empowerment however requires putting expert knowledge about the different dimensions of these issues at the service of societal questioning. For instance, how to decide how AI tools for diseases diagnosis should be mobilized without minimal understanding of strengths and limits of AI algorithms, of medical and biological characteristics of considered diseases, as well as of human, social, cultural or philosophical specificities of the act of diagnosing them? How to determine the role of neuroimaging in lawyering without neuroscientific knowledge New, but also without political, sociological and philosophical insights about the role of legal systems in societies? To address ethical issues raised by AI and NS, a specific topic needs societal exploration: the question of humanism, of what it means to be human at the time of NS and AI. The question is extremely pressing because AI and NS deeply question our traditional conceptions of humanism (is there free will? Can machine think like us? Feel like us? What does “think” or  “feel” even mean?), while the notion is key for ethical interrogation. In fact, how to determine the orientation  to choose in terms of  developments in the field of AI and NS without a clarified understanding of what it  means to be genuinely human in front of these new knowledge and technologies, of what is the place and the  role of humans in these new technological contexts.NHNAI will build a worldwide network gathering X  Catholic universities and X associated partners to contribute to the ethical empowerment of stakeholders’  communities concerned by societal challenges raised by NS and AI. For its first 3 years of operation, NHNAI  network will focus upon 3 specific topics that are highly impacted by NS and AI (education, health, democracy) and will thus interact with corresponding communities of concerned stakeholders. Members of the network  will harness expertise about humanism at the time of NS and AI (notably but far from exclusively based on  insights from Catholic and Christian traditions) to put it at the service of these communities.

The Four main components of NHNAI:
1. Members of NHNAI network will organize and align available expert knowledge about humanism with issues effectively faced by concerned communities (co-identification and co-construction of key questions).
2. Members of NHNAI network will put that aligned expertise at the service of collective questioning communities through dedicated mediation tools (citizen juries, hackathon, workshops …).
3. Members of NHNAI will collect the outcomes of collective ethical questioning to disseminate them, notably to bring them at the policy-making level.
4. NHNAI will deploy background efforts to ensure perpetuation of ethical empowerment through societal questioning about humanism at the time of NS and AI.
FOCUS TOPICS
Education
Health
Democracy
NHNAI Activities
   1. To put expert knowledge about humanism at the time of NS and AI at the service of societal questioning.  The Main objective: addressing the lack of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interweavement in order to  prepare the empowerment of societal questioning (activity 2). The sub-objectives:
   2. To focus upon building capacities for a societal questioning about what it means to be human at the time of NS and AI.
   3. Consists of the analysis, exploitation and dissemination (notably at the policy level) of societal questioning outputs.
   4. To deploy efforts to ensure the perpetuation and dissemination of ethical empowerment of the type  riggered within the project.
Expected Outcomes
     1. Enriched academic expertise both on methodological aspects and on the exploration of humanism on the ground of societal questioning (impact of societal questioning on academic world).
    2. Wider audience acquainted with the collective effort of societal questioning about humanism at the time of AI and NS empowered by NHNAI, and about the outputs;
    3. Seeds for bottom-up policy making about technological developments in the field of NS and AI, susceptible to receive increased societal support;
    4. Enhanced societal awareness about questions raised about what it means to be human at the time of NS and AI, susceptible to foster ethical questioning and expectancies of societal actors, with possible impacts upon economic actors (opening of viable economic spaces for ethical entrepreneurship).
                                               

Partnering Catholic Universities
(P1-UCLy) Lyon Catholic University
(P2-IFCU) International Federation of Catholic Universities
(P3-UCLille) University Catholic of Lille, FRANCE
(P4-LUMSA) Libera Università degli Studi Maria Ss. Assunta di Roma, ROME
(P5-UNamur) University of Namur, Jesuit, Catholic private university-BELGIUM
(P6-UCP) Universidade Católica Portuguesa, PORTUGAL
(P7-PUC) Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Spain
(P8-CUEA) The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Africa
(P9-FJCU) Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
(AP1-ND) Notre-Dame University (ND) – USA

From: November 2022 and 2025
Current Status: Ongoing
Type: International Federation of Catholic Universities

Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network; funded by The Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) of DePaul University. CUEA signed an MOU that began in 2021 and shall remain in force for five (5) years. The project will promote university research activities: hold annual CWCIT-CUEA seminar/webinar, interdisciplinary conferences for faculty development and doctoral students in the Faculty of Theology. Monitoring, capacity building, attracting grants, publishing, promoting the fruits of research – academic linkages – with Tangaza University College and Hekima. It is will also organize a post-Congress workshop to share the fruits of the Congress with the wider university committee with a view to following up with pedagogical and curricular innovations around the theme of vital Church in Africa. The project will have an element of exchange programme and interdisciplinary discussions on the challenges facing the Catholic Church based on the pastoral concerns of AMECEA, Africa and the World.
Formant: International
Approach: CWCIT-CUEA seminar/webinar, interdisciplinary conferences for faculty development and doctoral students in the Faculty of Theology.
CUEA Leader: Rev. Prof. Richard Rwiza