Sheldon Fernandez: The Theological Implications of Artificial Intelligence

Theology and Artificial Intelligence – rarely do these words appear in the same sentence. In mathematical jargon, they are orthogonal complements of one another: in different spheres or planes, lacking obvious conceptual connection. And yet there is a connection, one that is relevant, topical, and - in light of the aforementioned analysis - supremely important.

This thought provoking talk by Sheldon Fernandez, co-founder of DarwinAI and Regis graduate, explores the theological implications of this powerful and new technology.

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Chapters
0:10 - Introduction from Fr. Gordon Rixon
3:33 - Welcome
3:50 - Dedication in Memory
6:46 - Artificial Intelligence the term
8:06 - How do you get a Machine to do something?
10:44 - What is Machine Learning?
11:20 - What is Deep Learning?
15:11 - Amazing things that happened with Deep Learning
17:11 - Limitations with Deep Learning
19:30 - The Day the World Changed
20:11 - Just try ChatGPT
21:16 - How ChatGPT works
22:09 - ChatGPT: The Point
24:03 - Dad, where does ChatGPT Live?
26:03 - Powerful examples of GenerativeAI
26:39 - NoteBookLM Example
28:50 - Situational Awareness
30:30 - Reasoning Models
32:44 - Metacognition and DeepSeek
33:54 - The Trajectory of AI
35:40 - Sam Altman: One Way to look at Human History
36:33 - How do we combine AI with Theology?
37:09 - AI as a Tool for Theological Scholarship
38:01 - NoteBookLM to Synthesize Material
39:05 - AI coming up with novel Scholarship
40:05 - Theodicy and The Problem of Evil
41:41 - o1 formulating a new Theodicy
43:05 - Fractal Sublation Theodicy
47:31 - The Main Course: AI and The Sacred
49:22 - The Theological Response to the Promulgation of AI
50:55 - Daniel MacGuire on Theology
51:55 - Spiritual Intelligence vs. Intelligence about Spirituality
52:16 - Registering vs. Reckoning
54:26 - Reckoning: The Counterargument
55:26 - Anil Seth on Consciousness
58:53 - NotebookLM – A Twist
1:01:47 - Ex Machine – The Garland Test
1:02:43 - Insights from The Garland Test
1:03:43 - DarwinAI and Max Fernandez
1:04:34 - How do I end this?
1:06:29 - Conclusion
1:08:00 - Q&A