Artificial Intelligence: Applications, Ethics, and Society - Charlie Catlett

This two-part series provides a general understanding of the concepts, methods, and technologies underpinning artificial intelligence (AI), including recent innovations that have enabled entirely new capabilities. We provide examples of exciting applications as well as discuss the limitations and potential misuse of AI. A key objective is to equip ministry leaders to (a) harness new AI applications fully and appropriately and (b) bring a Christian perspective to discussions about the use of AI and its impacts on our communities and society at large.

Part two of this series provides examples of today’s AI limitations and weaknesses, with cautions regarding both deliberate and unintentional misuse of AI. The session considers how AI providers evaluate the technology’s trustworthiness, goal alignment, and ethics. This session explores how to discern what are appropriate or inappropriate uses of AI for individuals, churches, and ministries. We also discuss a range of areas where AI is influencing, or will influence, society in very visible and–perhaps more importantly–subtle, ways. Here, viewers will grapple with broader questions regarding potential impacts on society, such as in labor markets, privacy, discerning truth where our ability to trust in what we see and hear is challenged, and the sanctity and uniqueness of human life.

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Charlie Catlett is a senior computer scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, with visiting appointments at the University of Chicago and the University of Bristol. He has focused his research for 40 years in the development of the Internet and WorldWideWeb, computer security, and high-performance computing, holding scientific leadership positions at multiple universities and national laboratories. During the past decade his research has focused on the use of computational modeling and artificial intelligence (AI) embedded with sensors to create new classes of environmental measurements and urban planning capabilities. Recently he has also used AI-based data analysis to assess community vulnerability to factors ranging from communicable disease to impacts of climate change, such as flooding and extreme temperatures. He has received numerous awards for his research and leadership, including being named to Crain’s “Tech 50” leaders in Chicago in 2014, GovTech magazine’s national “25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers” of 2016, as a Distinguished Performer in 2019 by the Board of Trustees of Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, and was named one of the "High Performance Computing People to Watch in 2025" by HPCWire magazine. Charlie is a Computer Engineering graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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