As WCC staff discuss AI, they ask: “What does it mean to be human?”
As WCC staff discuss AI, they ask: “What does it mean to be human?”
iku
Fri, 09/25/2026 - 10:45
World Council of Churches staff gathered on 22 September to share and connect current initiatives addressing artificial intelligence. They discussed how the WCC uses AI, how to productively bring the discussion to WCC commissions and reference groups, and how to form a WCC staff task force on AI. They also discussed how best to contribute to planning a multidisciplinary symposium set for 15-19 February 2027.
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Offices of the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Centre in Kyoto building of the Green Village development, Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC
“ We kept coming back to one question—what does it mean to be human in this day and age?” said Dr Manoj Kurian, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing.”Tools have always shaped the people who use them. But now we have tools that can converse, reason, and come close to us, even intimately, so the stakes are much higher.”
As a physician, Kurian said he sees real promise in AI—earlier diagnosis, faster research into…
