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.

Arthur Boyd
St Francis kissing the Wolf of Gubbio
(1964-65)
© National Gallery of Australia