Father Paolo Benanti, Franciscan philosopher and researcher and The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Productivity Competition and Charities will Address the National Press Club on “Artificial Intelligence and Technology Ethics Forum”
Please note, this is not a luncheon but is a theatre style event with refreshments served before and at the conclusion of the Address.
Father Paolo Benanti
Father Paolo Benanti is an Italian Franciscan friar, member of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, Catholic priest, theologian, and academic specialising in the ethical implications of emerging technologies.
He holds a PhD in Moral Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, where his doctoral thesis focused on The Cyborg: Body and Corporeality in the Post-Human Era. In 2013 and 2014, he attended the Intensive Bioethics Course at the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
His research and academic interests span neuroethics, technology ethics, artificial intelligence, and post-human intelligence, with a particular focus on the ethical, social, and human implications of technological innovation.
Father Benanti is Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University and Adjunct Faculty at Seattle University’s College of Science and Engineering. He is also Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy at LUISS University in Rome.
He has served as an advisor to Pope Francis on artificial intelligence and technology ethics and is a member of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. He is President of the Italian Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Publishing and Information, as well as President of the Ethics Committee of the Observatory on Artificial Intelligence established under the EU AI Act.
A frequent speaker on technology and society, Father Benanti has delivered keynote lectures at numerous international conferences and has participated in TEDx and Google Talks, as well as extensively contributing to national and international media. In English he published in 2018 Homo Faber: The Techno-Human Condition.
The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University.
He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
His books include Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator (with Joshua Gans) (2019), The Shortest History of Economics (2024) and The Shortest History of Innovation (2026). Andrew is a keen Ironman triathlete and ultramarathoner. He is the father of three sons – Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary – and lives with his wife Gweneth in Canberra.
