As scheduled, on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 May 2025, the third teaching module of the annual training and refresher course for specialists and scholars of moral theology on “Artificial Intelligence and Teaching Techniques. Potential and Challenges” was held in the Alphonsian Academy in a mixed mode (in person and online), coordinated by some teachers who were already students of the Pontifical Institute for Specialization in Moral Theology.
The question on the reality of AI, with its possible challenges and prospects, constituted the main provocation in the first module of 6 and 7 September 2024, which was followed in the webinar of 28 February 2025 by the one on its applications in some specific fields of our living and working. In this third and final module, the initial question was applied to the specific area of moral theology and its teaching with a path in several moments: the Lectio magistralis by Prof. G. Del Missier – on AI in the teaching of moral theology – and the engazing activity – Designing with AI – guided by Prof. A. Pizzichini and characterized by a rich introductory moment to three workshops whose outcome was shared in plenary on the afternoon of 31 May. On the Academy’s YouTube channel, you can view the various sessions of the two days, in addition to the presentation of the volume Artificial Intelligence: the Soul and the Automaton (Verbo et Opere 2, Marcianum Press, Venice 2024) by Prof. A. Pizzichini, who introduced the training module.
The Project Coordination has already started the design and programming of the new 2025-2026 training path, whose focus, in continuity with what has been explored in depth in this first year, will be research. We will ask ourselves how a teacher is called to use artificial intelligence in his research and how he is called to help students become aware of its potential. From what is understood in the three annual modules, AI is not a tool to be demonized but to be known and used intelligently!
With this perspective, that of research, we would like to renew the invitation to participants to write a post for the Blog of the Accademia Alfonsiana on the themes investigated in the annual path, or a scientific article for the magazine Studia Moralia so as to actively contribute and be protagonists in the formation of the work and research community.
In conclusion, we would like to thank all those who believed in and supported, in different ways, the training project, provoked and guided by the desire to respond to the common social challenge of AI. Because morality, as we like to think and say, is not a dead science. Life questions us daily.
Next appointment, September 2025!
(source: alfonsiana.org )
