Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we learn, work, communicate, build relationships, and understand the world around us. As these technologies become more powerful and deeply embedded in everyday life, an increasingly important question emerges: How can we ensure that AI advances human flourishing?

OI26: Human Flourishing in an Age of AI brings together faith leaders, scholars, technologists, policymakers, educators, and civil society leaders in Utah for a public, multifaith conversation about the human future in an age of artificial intelligence.

Questions about AI cannot be answered through technical expertise alone. Religious and wisdom traditions have spent centuries wrestling with questions of human dignity, agency, meaning, relationships, responsibility, community, and the common good. OI26 brings these perspectives into conversations with leaders working at the forefront of technology, public policy, education, and civil society.

The program will also focus on the places where AI intersects with everyday life: families and relationships, education, work, privacy and human dignity, mental health and social connection, and civic institutions.

OI26 invites us to look beyond what AI can do and consider what technological progress should ultimately serve.

DATE: November 10, 2026
TIME: 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
LOCATION: Utah State Capitol, Salt Lake City, Utah

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AGENDA

9:00-9:20 | Opening Plenary

“Human Flourishing in an Age of AI”

Speaker: Medlir Mema

9:20–9:50 | Opening Keynote

“What Does Human Flourishing Look Like in an Age of AI?”

Speaker: Bishop Oscar Solis (Utah Catholic Diocese)

Drawing on Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, Bishop Solis reflects on what it means to preserve human dignity, agency, relationships, and the common good as AI increasingly shapes human life.

9:50–9:55 | Musical Number

9:55–10:30 | Multifaith Plenary

“Faith, Wisdom, and the Moral Architecture of AI”

Participants: Zachary Davis (moderator), Marian Edmonds-Allen, Geoff Mittleman, Father Gregory Telemachus-Stamkopoulos

What can religious and wisdom traditions teach us about human dignity, agency, meaning, relationships, responsibility, and the responsible exercise of technological power?

10:30-10:45 | Break

10:45–12:15 | OI Conversations

12:15–1:15 | Lunch

1:15–1:40 | Featured Address

“A New Magna Carta for an Age of AI”

Speaker: Valerie Hudson

Connecting moral principles to the practical realities of increasingly capable and autonomous AI systems.

1:40–2:10 | OI Conversations

“Public Institutions in the Age of AI”

Examining the role of states, legislatures, educational institutions, and other public bodies in ensuring that innovation strengthens human flourishing while preserving dignity, agency, families, communities, and the common good.

2:10–2:30 | Distinguished Address

“Governing for Human Flourishing: Innovation, Trust, and the Public Interest”

Speaker: Margaret Busse, Commissioner, Utah Department of Commerce

Drawing on Utah’s approach to AI policy, Commissioner Busse explores how the government can create space for technological experimentation while establishing safeguards that protect people, strengthen trust, and keep human well-being at the center of AI policy.

2:30–2:45 | Break

2:45-3:30 | OI Conversation

“Building a Pro-Human AI Coalition”

Faith, policy, technology, and civil-society leaders discuss practical models for sustained collaboration beyond the conference.

3:30–3:50 | Plenary Address

“From Principles to Action: AGI, ASI, and the Human Future”

Speaker: Brian Boyd (FLI)

A forward-looking conversation about increasingly capable AI systems, long-term risks, human agency, and what society should begin preparing for now.

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Restore is an annual gathering organized by Faith Matters. It’s a three-day event of inspiring speakers and outstanding music, art, and community, all centered on restoring faith, belonging, and wholeness.

This year there are several sessions related to technology and AI that you might be interested in.

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God and Man in Silicon Valley: The Occult World of the Tech Bros

How a set of strange, radical, and badly under-examined ideas possessed by a small group of tech elites will shape the coming AI era. It is important for all people—especially people of faith—to understand them, because they could have profound influence on the future of humanity.

Ensuring AI Enhances—and Not Hinders—Human Flourishing

How can we ensure AI is developed and governed in ways that advance the flourishing of our children and families? Is Big Tech unstoppable or can individuals and governments ensure that the safety of ordinary people isn’t sacrificed on the altar of Silicon Valley ideology? And how can faith guide us as we navigate this time of enormous technological change?

Why It’s Time to Give Up Your Smartphone

The greatest threat to faith today is technology. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus proclaims, “No one can serve two masters.” But most of us in our daily actions serve Big Tech and the attention economy more than any God. We place our faith in the algorithm, and seek our answers online and not in prayer. We look down at our screens instead of up at Heaven. We worship the work of human hands, and convince ourselves we have no other choice. Through our reliance on digital technology, we have become conformed to this world. It is no easy task to break free, but it is possible—and for people of faith, it is a duty.

Is A New Renaissance Upon Us?

The European Renaissance represents a unique flowering of human wisdom and goodness. Not only was objective, scientific knowledge beginning to come into its own at that time, but more subjective modes of knowing were still honored and even celebrated. Beauty and Truth formed a powerful alliance. We now live downstream from this radiant moment in history. Scientific knowledge has attained near impossible heights. And yet, what arguably makes us most human — our capacity to find and make-meaning — seems to lag far behind. We live longer thanks to medical science, but we are lonelier and less sure of what we are living for in the first place. But a new Renaissance is dawning. Widespread alienation proves to be the fuel of longing that calls us back to intimacy and the re-enchanting of the world. We’re beginning to understand that the world is not simply given — we must participate directly in the creation of it. The story of an uncaring, random universe is wearing thin while the awakened human heart dreams up a future of coherence, care and creativity. Join Thomas McConkie at Restore on September 26th for an embodied and ensouled experience. In this next round of rebirth, we can transform the world only by transforming the self.

Young, Mormon, and Online: Keeping Your Faith and Soul on the Internet

The internet often rewards outrage, certainty, and division. So what does it look like to follow Christ in a space that can feel anything but Christlike? Four young Latter-day Saint voices will share real experiences that taught them how to listen, build bridges, understand others, and invite with confidence—making room for Christ even in the most difficult online conversations.

Tickets are almost sold out, so register quickly. You can save 10% by using the code OI26.

If cost is a barrier, there are scholarships available. Write to info@faithmatters.org

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We are in a nexus of profound scientific, technological, and spiritual change. After centuries of separation, this is the moment to reintegrate two of humanity’s great projects: the cultivation of spiritual wisdom and the advancement of scientific knowledge.

With the support of the John Templeton Foundation, and under the editorial direction of Maddy Peterson, James Ungureanu, and Benjamin Peters, Wayfare Magazine will begin publishing a series of essays that offer pathways for this reintegration of religion and science, culminating in a special issue on this theme coming out early next year.

To receive new essays in this series in your inbox, turn on notifications for the New Creation newsletter in your Wayfare subscription settings.

To receive the beautiful print issue and support our mission, become a paid subscriber by clicking the link below.

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Recently, Elder Gerrit W. Gong released a remarkable series of videos that offers guidance for how Latter-day Saints should engage with AI.

He offered three gospel-centered guideposts for approaching this technology:

1. Rely on the Spirit: Let technology support, not supplant, revelation, personal study, and covenant living. There is no substitute for “[studying] it out in your mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8) and feeling the Lord’s spiritual confirmation in our hearts and minds (see Enos 1:2).

2. Practice wisdom: Apply wise judgment informed by doctrine and our own lived experience.

3. Choose trusted sources: Anchor understanding in scripture, prophetic counsel, and reliable information.

Elder Gong also invited us to slow down, be still, and allow the beauty of creation to connect us to God and our deepest selves. As he teaches in one of these videos:

“Technology can inform us, but without the spirit it cannot transform our nature or our being. Let us wisely use AI and technology tools to deepen faith and spiritual understanding, strengthen relationships and families, and instill reverence for God’s creation.”

We encourage you to watch these videos and share them with your friends and families.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: ELDER GONG’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT ORGANIZED INTELLIGENCE 2025

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On Nov. 5, in a harshly lit conference room at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ main administrative hub in Salt Lake City, Elder Gerrit Gong delivered an impassioned speech about the future of AI.

“Man can create AI, but AI cannot create God,” he told the assembled audience.

Gong was speaking at a conference put together by Organized Intelligence, an initiative not directly associated with the church but one that advances Latter-day Saint perspectives on AI, namely that these tools are safe, properly regulated and don’t impede or replace users’ relationship with morality or God.

Gong, who is one of the 12 Apostles of the church, has spent much of the last year thinking and speaking about this rapidly evolving technology. A former State Department official and Oxford-trained Rhodes Scholar, he is able to discuss AI at a technical level or a more abstracted one. And he is the public face of a concerted Latter-day Saint effort to begin to take seriously the risks associated with AI development.

Over the course of two days at the Organized Intelligence conference, Latter-day Saint leaders weren’t the only ones taking the stage. The speakers included officials from the Future of Life Institute, which works to reduce existential risk from advanced AI, historians from around the country and the executive director of Utah’s Department of Commerce. As quickly became apparent, there is a fast-growing collection of people and interests in Utah who are deeply focused on the future of AI.

Top officials in the state have also shown no hesitation when it comes to going up against the agenda of Big Tech — or the industry’s allies in the Trump administration.

The state Legislature has been aggressive about trying to impose new restrictions on social media companies, leading to a protracted fight that continues to play out in the courts. More recently, Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox has drawn the ire of major online prediction market companies — and the attention of their lawyers — after he and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown vowed to make sure their apps were illegal in the state. But it’s the debate over AI that has made Utah the epicenter in the fight for regulation of a technology that its biggest boosters and critics alike say could transform life as we know it.

“Utah being a majority Latter-day Saints state, it has a unique way of doing politics,” said Medlir Mema, the executive director of Organized Intelligence and a Latter-day Saint himself. “It has this mantra about ‘disagreeing better.’”

Utah officials say they’re trying to find a middle ground on AI — guided by faith and morality while also embracing modernity. If they succeed, they could prove to be a national model for tech development and safety. But first, the state will have to find its way out of the crosshairs of the White House.

Utah stumbled into its clash with the Trump administration in January, after GOP State Rep. Doug Fiefia introduced HB 286. A sweeping piece of legislation, it was aimed at increasing transparency and building safeguards around frontier AI models, requiring companies to post public safety and child protection plans on their websites and report safety issues to Utah’s policy office. It also established civil penalties for offenders and protections for whistleblowers.

But after weeks of public debate on the bill, the Trump administration stepped in with a directive: Stop.

“We are categorically opposed to Utah HB 286 and view it as an unfixable bill that goes against the Administration’s AI Agenda,” the entirety of the letter read.

President Donald Trump has embraced Silicon Valley’s efforts to unleash AI and signed an executive order in December designed to preempt any state regulations on AI with a potential federal standard, one that critics are concerned will amount to no regulation at all. Trump’s influential AI czar David Sacks, a venture capitalist by trade, has pushed the federal government away from regulating AI, a move he believes would stifle growth.

CONTINUE READING AT POLITICO

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We are delighted to share the recordings from Organized Intelligence 2025 with you.

You can find them below, or on Youtube. Let us know which ones resonate most with you, and please share with your friends and networks.

We are hard at work planning our next gathering and developing additional ways to advance a Latter-day Saint approach to AI. If our work resonates with you, consider supporting us with a tax-free contribution.

-Zachary Davis, Medlir Mema, Bennett Borden

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Help us continue to create a space for this important conversation. Make a donation today.

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She is the author or editor of several books, including (with Andrea Den Boer) “Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population” (MIT Press, 2004), which won the American Association of Publishers Award for the Best Book in Political Science, and the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Best Book in Social Demography, resulting in feature stories in the New York Times, the Economist, 60 Minutes and other news publications. Hudson was named to the list of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009 and is one of the principal investigators of the WomanStats Project, which includes the largest compilation of data on the status of women in the world today. She is a founding editorial board member of Foreign Policy Analysis and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow; her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense. Her latest books, co-authored, are Sex and World Peace, and The Hillary Doctrine, both published by Columbia University Press.

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