The University of Notre Dame has taken a decisive step into the global conversation on artificial intelligence ethics after securing a landmark grant exceeding fifty million dollars to advance a faith rooted framework for the AI age. The funding, awarded by the Lilly Endowment, represents the largest single private grant in the university’s history and is directed toward expanding the DELTA Network, an initiative launched in late 2025. At a moment when leading technologists warn that AI development is accelerating faster than society’s moral readiness, Notre Dame’s project aims to shape not just policy discussions but the deeper moral imagination of those who will design, deploy, and live alongside advanced technologies.
The DELTA framework is built on five Christian principles intended to guide reflection on AI’s place in human life. These include the inherent dignity of every person, the embodied and relational nature of humanity, love as the foundation of ethical action, transcendence as openness beyond the self, and human agency grounded in moral responsibility. University leaders emphasize that while the framework draws explicitly from Christian thought, it is designed to be intelligible and usable across belief systems. The initiative does not seek to produce religious technologies or prescribe technical solutions, but rather to offer a shared ethical language capable of informing decisions in education, industry, media, and public life as AI becomes increasingly embedded in daily experience.
A central focus of the project is education, with plans to support the development of dozens of college level courses on AI ethics shaped by the DELTA principles. These efforts aim to respond to widespread concern among educators who feel unprepared to address the cultural and moral implications of emerging technologies in classrooms. Beyond academia, the network also intends to equip pastoral leaders and faith communities with tools to engage AI related questions affecting work, privacy, creativity, and human relationships. By doing so, the initiative positions religious institutions not as observers of technological change but as active contributors to conversations about what constitutes a good and humane future.
Public engagement forms the third pillar of the effort, including a planned presence in Silicon Valley to foster dialogue with technology professionals. Notre Dame officials note that despite stereotypes, many individuals working in tech sectors are open to ethical and spiritual perspectives, particularly as concerns grow about unchecked innovation. The initiative seeks to create spaces where ancient moral traditions and contemporary technological expertise can meet without caricature or dismissal. University leadership has framed this engagement as a bridge building exercise, connecting the Church’s long ethical memory with the unprecedented challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
By anchoring AI ethics in longstanding moral principles, Notre Dame’s initiative reflects a broader Catholic conviction that technological progress must remain ordered toward human flourishing. The grant signals growing recognition that ethical formation cannot be an afterthought in the AI revolution. As artificial intelligence reshapes economies, relationships, and even concepts of agency, the university’s approach suggests that faith based wisdom has a role not only in critiquing technology’s excesses but in helping society imagine how innovation can remain genuinely human.
