How should we understand artificial intelligence, and what place should it have in a genuinely human future?
Held at Thomas Aquinas College August 3–6, 2026, The Mind and the Machine brought together philosophers, technologists, educators, and industry leaders to examine artificial intelligence through the perennial questions of the Western intellectual and Catholic traditions.
Across lectures, seminars, and panel discussions, speakers explored whether machines can truly reason or become conscious, the promises and dangers of artificial general intelligence, the distinction between intelligence and wisdom, and the implications of AI for human freedom, education, work, faith, and flourishing.
Rather than asking only what increasingly powerful machines can do, the symposium returned to a more fundamental question: What is the human person, and what constitutes a truly good human life? The talks examine AI not simply as a technological development, but as an occasion to reconsider reason, virtue, freedom, judgment, wisdom, and the purpose of education.
This playlist contains the lectures and conversations from The Mind and the Machine, offering perspectives ranging from optimism about AI as a powerful intellectual tool to serious warnings about its potential to reshape human society and our understanding of ourselves.
