Dr. Nathan C. Walker delivered the keynote address for the 2025 Ethics Awareness Week at Utah Valley University, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethics and the Applied AI Institute.
In his talk, Moral Imagination: From Smart to Wise AI, he asked, is “smart” the best we can imagine for this century’s technological advancements? Or are we striving for something more? Artificial intelligence promises efficiency and innovation, but will it enrich the human experience and tap what makes people wise? He introduced moral imagination as a conceptual framework to measure whether human wisdom is embedded throughout the AI lifecycle. Dr. Walker will challenge attendees to think not only about how to build smarter machines but also about how preventing harm, promoting good, and safeguarding human dignity sets us on a path toward a wiser future.