Confronting the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
A National Interdisciplinary Conference hosted by The University of Scranton
April 16th, 17th, and 18th, 2026 | Scranton, Pennsylvania
About the Conference
The University of Scranton, a Catholic and Jesuit University with a strong liberal arts tradition, invites scholars, practitioners, students, and professionals to participate in a National Interdisciplinary Conference on Confronting the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, scheduled for April 16, 17, and 18, 2026.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping every dimension of our lives. It has clear impacts on social, economic, educational, scientific, artistic, and ecological spheres. The potential for AI is immense, but its adoption and use raise critical ethical questions. Ranging from algorithmic bias, ambient surveillance, labor displacement, the future of education, and its impact on human creativity and fulfillment. As it stands, the AI landscape demands discernment and ethical reflection.
This conference seeks to bring together diverse voices to explore, critique, and reimagine AI through the lens of ethics, understood broadly to include philosophical, religious, cultural, legal, medical, environmental, artistic, and social perspectives.
Conference Themes
We invite submissions that engage with the ethics of artificial intelligence in both specific and general applications. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Arts & Humanities: AI in creativity, authorship, performance, and cultural identity.
- Business: Automation, labor ethics, and corporate responsibility.
- Education: AI in teaching, learning, and research integrity; utilizing AI for student success initiatives and learning accommodations; ethical applications and questions related to AI in scholarly activity; AI in K-12 education.
- Environmental Impact: AI and sustainability, climate modeling, and AI resource consumption.
- Healthcare & Medicine: Projection models for patient disease development; treatment individuation; individualized medicine; bias in treatment.
- Law & Policy: Privacy and data usage; the legitimacy of AI in government.
- Library & Information Science: AI and the new digital divide; algorithmic bias; AI accuracy, mis- and dis-information.
- Philosophy: AI as moral agents; AI's effect on human autonomy and decision making; human-AI interfaces and the locus of moral responsibility.
- Science: AI fabrication of scientific data or references; legitimacy of sources for AI training; drug discovery; intellectual property of data from AI discoveries.
- Theology: AI in moral theology and bioethics; AI applications in Catholic healthcare; theological responses to AI development, including those offered in light of Antiqua et nova (2025).
- Social Justice & Equity: Accessibility, bias, and discrimination in AI systems.
- Social Sciences: AI as a research tool for data analysis and methodology; AI systems as social entities and their behavioral impacts; algorithmic bias in social research; AI's effects on human social structures and interactions.
Mission Alignment
Rooted in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition, this conference advances the University of Scranton's mission to foster moral reflection, critical inquiry, and the pursuit of justice. By bringing together voices across disciplines, the conference affirms that the ethical challenges of AI cannot be confronted by a single discipline, but instead require the collective wisdom of the arts, business professionals, health professionals, humanities, sciences, social sciences, and technologists.