For several years, the Bellarmine community has participated in the Justice Summit, an event undertaken by many Jesuit high schools in deepening students’ understanding of social justice issues through the lens of Catholic Social Teachings. On Feb. 10 to 14, everyone explored the fifth iteration of the Summit—”Magis in the Machine: Seeking Justice in the Age of AI.”
Approaching conversations on technology in the spirit of Ignatian teachings, particularly the magis, the Justice Summit operated under this mission:
“As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in our schools, workplaces, and everyday lives, it is essential to discuss its impact. As a community, we are called to use AI to serve the common good. In the spirit of magis, it is our mission to work with AI equitably and ethically to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. With AI, we seek to minimize bias, ensure transparency, and promote accountability to foster justice rather than discrimination.”
Before and during the summit, students engaged with AI and social justice topics in a number of ways. The week before Feb. 10, the Justice Summit Planning Team posted discussion prompts in Bellarmine Hall, as well as sent out a survey on AI usage to gauge familiarity and interest about the topic. Results of these polls informed the lessons and activities to come in the following week.
On the first day of the Justice Summit, Adam Smith, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Puget Sound provided insight into the ethical implications of using AI. Soon after, students shared viewpoints on technology in a Four Corners dialogue during Formation and played Kahoot games based on AI trivia during lunch. In a relatively untapped topic in social justice, this Justice Summit quickly encouraged students to consider the possibilities—positive and negative—of relying on AI.
In the next Formation activity, the functionality of AI was investigated deeper. Participants practiced generating prompts for different AI platforms, studying how each one is trained with a different machine learning model. This gave more technical understanding of how AI is able to easily streamline tasks and generate ideas, but also spread misinformation and perpetuate bias. Applying this knowledge, each Formation crafted a Justice Summit poster, and answered the question of how we can “stretch” ourselves when using AI for good. Posters were shared in a competition held by the Planning Team to celebrate the end of the Justice Summit.
Justice Summit Moderator Kevin Lee said, this AI-centered Summit “encourage[s] you to embody ‘the more’ and discover how we can use AI to become the best version of ourselves, even when facing the inequities caused by technology.”
“While the question of how to strive for the magis in the age of AI is far from being answered completely, the school has gained a new understanding and appreciation for the importance of thinking and dialoguing about how we can come together as one community to support one another in this rapidly evolving age of artificial intelligence.”
