The founder of the psychoanalytic school, Sigmund Freud, in a 1917 paper, spoke of three narcissistic injuries of the human person. The first narcissistic violation or injury came with the heliocentric worldview and the insight that we are not the center of the universe. It was followed by two more: the loss of the position of the crown of creation through the theory of evolution, and the loss of sovereignty over oneself through the discovery of the power of the unconscious. Copernicus stood for the first injury, Darwin for the second, and Freud, according to himself, for the third and most serious one. Now, had Freud heard of generative AI or artificial general intelligence, he would have been prompted to add a fourth narcissistic violation of the human person. The cosmological, biological, and psychological injuries are followed by the intellectual injury. How we will cope with that one remains to be seen.

It stands clear, however, that AI will affect human self- understanding. This, in turn, requires philosophical and theological reflection in a transdisciplinary setting. This symposium offers a space for such reflections.

The anthropological challenges are accompanied by societal changes. We are in the midst of a massive technological shift. The place and meaning of work in our lives may be subject to profound change. These developments will also shape the dialogue between science and religion / theology in new ways.

This symposium will look at cutting-edge questions about (artificial) intelligence through a theological and anthropological lens as well as the use of AI in religious studies.