Professors George F. McHendry and Steven Fernandes from Creighton University will present a retreat titled, Humanity at the Brink of Artificial Intelligence at Saint Benedict Center, four miles north of Schuyler, on May 2 – 3, 2025

Recent developments in artificial intelligence are transforming many aspects of human life. This seminar will address how AI works and is being used today, as well as the advantages and drawbacks of future developments in the areas of machine learning, deep learning and generative AI. We will explore how AI as a tool is both a complement and a threat to human intelligence and will discuss the moral and ethical standards Christians can use to determine its use. Attendance on Saturday only is possible.

George F. McHendry, Jr., PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Timms Endowed Professor and Director of the Magis Core Curriculum. Dr. McHendry’s research and teaching explore the ways we communicate about surveillance, privacy, and data collection. His previous work includes analysis of the Transportation Security Administration’s screening procedures, the circulation of hate speech online, and surveillance and data in popular culture. His current book project, Data (under contract with Parlor Press), examines how data have built and shaped society from the invention of the census to life today. Currently, Dr. McHendry is also leading efforts to teach about generative AI in Creighton’s core curriculum.

Steven Fernandes, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Creighton University. Prior to joining Creighton, Dr. Fernandes gained postdoctoral research experience at the University of Central Florida, working on an NSF-funded project focused on deep neural networks. Before that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, working on an NIH-funded project in medical image processing. His current research involves developing innovative deep neural network models for applications in computer vision, natural language processing, and medical imaging. His research has been supported by federal pilot grants from the NSF and NIH, as well as internal grants from Creighton and cloud compute research credits from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The retreat begins on Friday, at 7:30 p.m. and ends on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. The program fee is $80, room and board charges are additional. Saturday attendance only is $60. Early Bird Rate for Fri-Sat (register before March 29) is $70.

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