Humans possess a capacity for what the ancient Greeks called logos — speech, language, rationality. In the words of the philosopher Charles Taylor, we are “the language animal.” In the Christian tradition, logos has a special meaning: Christ, believed to be fully divine and fully human, is understood as logos incarnate. Recent advances in AI invite us to consider anew the nature and significance of our human form of logos, and to ask whether and how such a capacity might be instantiated in a machine. Contemporary large language models (LLMs) are amazingly adept with language. How should we think about what these systems are doing with words? Do they possess genuine understanding of themselves or the world? What do they reveal to us about our own abilities for speech and thought? What do they suggest about the connections between life, agency, embodiment, and language? Can we envision machines with their own form of logos? What would those machines be like in their constitution and mode of functioning?

Bishop Paul Tighe was ordained a priest of the Dublin Diocese in 1983. After post-graduate studies in Rome, he lectured in theology and ethics in Dublin. In 2007, he was appointed as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications at the Holy See.  In 2015, he was nominated Bishop and assigned to the Pontifical Council for Culture. He currently serves as Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Co-sponsored by Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Philosophy Department, and Digital Ethics Lab, UCP.

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