Moral
Red Lines White Paper

Upcoming

Rome

In partnership with the Faculty of Social Sciences, Pontifical Gregorian University

Moral Red Lines in the AI Race: Superintelligence, Work, and Human Relationships

The Rome workshop will bring together an international group of experts from AI safety, computer science, ethics, social science, theology, and the Vatican and Catholic institutional context for an intensive discussion of technological trajectories that may require moral limits.

Rather than treating AI ethics primarily as a question of mitigating harms after systems have been built, the workshop will ask whether there are directions of AI development that should not be pursued at all, or only under a demanding burden of proof. Three tracks will focus on the race toward AGI and superintelligence and the problem of meaningful human control; AI-driven automation, work, and human participation; and artificial companionship and the technological substitution of human relationships.

The aim is to identify both possible moral red lines and their pro-human alternatives: AI that remains controllable, strengthens rather than replaces human capacities, and remains ordered toward human dignity, relationship, participation, and responsibility.

View provisional programme

Confirmed keynote speakers

Roman V. Yampolskiy

Roman V. Yampolskiy

Associate Professor · Founding Director, Cyber Security Lab · University of Louisville

Track

Superintelligence, uncontrollable AGI, and the AI control problem
Anna Thomas MBE

Anna Thomas MBE

Founding Director · Institute for the Future of Work

Track

AI-driven automation, human work, and the limits of technological substitution
Professor Simone Schnall

Simone Schnall

Professor of Experimental Social Psychology · University of Cambridge

Track

Human Relationships in the Age of AI: Social Connection and Artificial Companionship

Additional participants and speakers from AI safety, ethics, social science, theology, and Vatican and Catholic institutions will be announced as the programme is finalized.

Provisional Programme

The programme is provisional and may be updated. All times are local to Rome (CET).

Room: F007

Three thematic sessions. Each 85-minute session comprises a 35-minute keynote, a 10-minute response, a 5-minute keynote reply, and 35 minutes of moderated expert discussion.

  1. –

    Arrival and welcome coffee

  2. –

    Welcome and introduction

    Fr. Peter Lah, SJ

    Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Pontifical Gregorian University

    Dr. Octavian M. Machidon

    University of Ljubljana / Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas

    Introduction to the workshop, the Moral Red Lines project and its framework.

  3. –

    Session I: Superintelligence and Human Control

    Keynote: Roman V. Yampolskiy

    University of Louisville, USA

    Respondent: TBD

  4. –

    Coffee break

  5. –

    Session II: AI, Work, and Human Dignity

    Keynote: Anna Thomas MBE

    Founding Director, Institute for the Future of Work, UK

    Respondent: TBD

  6. –

    Coffee break

  7. –

    Session III: AI and Human Relationships

    Keynote: Prof. Simone Schnall

    University of Cambridge, UK

    Respondent: Fr. Andrea Ciucci

    Chancellor, Pontifical Academy for Life

  8. –

    Cross-track synthesis: The Human Person at the Centre: Moral Discernment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    Keynote: Fr. Michael Baggot, LC

    Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum / Angelicum

  9. End of formal programme

Room: F103

Toward a Rome Statement on Moral Red Lines in the AI Race

A collaborative working session bringing together the insights from Thursday's discussions, with the aim of developing a short statement outlining moral boundaries and guiding principles for a genuinely pro-human development of AI.

  1. –

    Opening and recap

    Key insights and questions emerging from Thursday's three thematic sessions.

  2. –

    Roundtable: Shaping the Rome Statement

    Open discussion of the main principles and proposed moral red lines concerning superintelligence, human work, and human relationships. Identifying areas of agreement and points requiring further reflection.

  3. –

    Coffee break

  4. –

    Working session: Drafting the Rome Statement

    Review and refinement of a short preliminary draft, bringing together the principal conclusions and proposals for a pro-human direction in AI development.

  5. –

    Closing reflections and next steps

    Agreeing on final editorial revisions, voluntary endorsement, and publication of the Rome Statement.

  6. End of workshop

Interest in participating

Interested in attending the Rome workshop?

A limited number of places may be available for additional participants whose work is relevant to the themes of the workshop.

If you would be interested in attending, please send us a brief expression of interest. We will follow up individually as the programme is finalized.

Express interest in attending

The underlying framework

Explore the framework behind the event.

Explore the six red lines