The 2027 Telos-Paul Piccone Institute Annual Conference
March 19–20, 2027
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/CUNY
New York, NY

Deus et Machina: Technology, Politics, and Theology in the Age of AI

Conference Description

OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in November 2022 ushered in a new era of “artificial intelligence,” represented by large language models, the effects of which remain tenebrous and contested. This new technology has been rapidly adopted throughout society, impacting many areas of everyday life and triggering an investment boom that has come to dominate U.S. economic activity, yet it remains quite unclear what this portends. Predictions range from optimistic aspirations to free human beings from drudgery (the long-standing promise of new technologies) and bring widespread prosperity, to serious warnings, most particularly from inside the AI industry itself, that AI might intentionally exterminate humanity. In between the two lie dire concerns about the implications for the labor market and perverse aspirations for AI to replace human beings as the dominant form of intelligence in the universe.

We propose to turn our critical attention to this extraordinary conjuncture and revisit the question of the relationship of technology to politics and theology. What becomes of politics in an age of apparent subordination of humanity? And what becomes of religion in an age when mankind creates a power that threatens to outstrip our own understanding and become a god? Does this represent a moral crisis, as Pope Leo has suggested? And can anything be done to avert the trajectory we are seemingly on?

From the point of view of the Telos circle, technological acceleration poses a significant conundrum for our ongoing attempts to understand our society. If the political can be understood using theological categories, what does this imply as it mutates due to the eruption of technology within it? Is technology itself amenable to a theological understanding, as many have suggested? And if it might be understood alternatively as a cold god or apocalyptic event, might this not place it on the same plane as the state, envisaged at least since Hobbes as both machine and mortal god?

Abstract Submissions

We invite papers dealing with the intersection of technology with politics and theology, and most particularly of technology with political theology, as well as contemporary reflections on the relationship of politics to theology more generally.

Those interested in speaking at the conference should submit a short c.v. and an abstract of up to 250 words by October 30, 2026, to telos2027@telosinstitute.net with “The 2027 Telos Conference” in the email’s subject line.