“We are amazing biological machines” and “I am a robot” are lines spoken by some experts in the field of artificial intelligence, leading to an increased blurring of the distinction between humans and machines. More and more, we apply the metaphor of “machine” to humans, including our minds. The rise of devices that can sense and respond to human emotions, as well as the development of brain-computer interfaces that can be implanted in our brain, further tempt us to treat this metaphor as literal reality.

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AI pioneer Dr. Rosalind Picard will deliver the 12^th Anderson Lecture in Science & Religion on March 20, 2025. The annual lecture, hosted by Anselm House, a Christian study center, is titled "Are We Merely Machines?" and will explore the rise of artificial intelligence and its implications for human cognition. Drawing from insights of the Christian faith, Picard will consider what contributions the Christian faith, with two thousand years of reflection on what it means to be human, has to offer to our rapidly changing modern world.

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Picard is the Grover M. Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology at MIT’s Media Lab. She is also an entrepreneur, having founded Affectiva and Empatica, two companies that use emotion AI to enhance technology and health care.

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The lecture will be held at 7:00 p.m. in Memorial Hall at McNamara Alumni Center. Registration is requested but not required.

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Anselm House has hosted the Anderson Lecture in Science & Religion annually since 2014. Past speakers have included Br. Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory, Dr. Bill Newsome of Stanford University, Dr. Stephen Barr of the University of Delaware, and Dr. William Hurlbut of Stanford University. The Anderson Lecture is named after the late Dr. Elving Anderson, a deeply committed Christian and geneticist who served as a faculty at the University of Minnesota.