AI & Creation Care: Friends, Foes or Future?

AI & Creation Care: Friends, Foes or Future?

June 12, 2026, 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Hybrid Event (On-site & Zoom)

Join the GTU’s Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and New College Berkeley for an exploration of the complex relationship between AI and the environment. What are the prospects for environmentally-positive breakthroughs and gains from AI? What are AI's direct and indirect environmental costs?  And how might faith perspectives help guide our choices as individuals, in organizations, and as a society, regarding AI and its environmental effects? This event will include short presentations, a panel discussion with Q&A, theological reflections, and small group discussion.

Participants include: Jim Stump, Greg Cootsona, Sharon Talbott, Leslie Herrmann, and Braden Molhoek

2:30 PM Welcome & Introductions

2:45 PM AI and the Environment

3:15 PM Moderated panel discussion

4:00 PM Theological response/reflection by Leslie Herrmann

4:15 PM Table-top discussions in small groups

4:30 PM Q&A

5:00 PM Adjourn

Greg Cootsona is Executive Director of AI and Faith and recently retired as lecturer in Comparative Religion and Humanities at Chico State. He serves as associate pastor at Bidwell Presbyterian Church and is the author of several books, including Science and Religions in America: A New Look (Routledge, 2023). He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, which focused on the intersection of science and theology, and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. 

He has been interviewed by the New York Times, NPR, the BBC, and CNN, among others. He and his wife, Laura, live in Chico, California. He loves biking, reading, writing, and drinking good coffee… but not all at the same time.

Jim Stump is the Vice President at BioLogos and host of the podcast "Language of God." A philosopher by training, his latest book is The Sacred Chain: How Understanding Evolution Leads to Deeper Faith.

Sharon Talbott has been a marketing strategist in energy and sustainability for 20 years, focused on customer experience in the energy transition. Trained as a linguist and anthropologist, Sharon’s particular passions in this sector are energy efficiency, environmental justice, and technology adoption. Her most recent role was Director of Industry Marketing, Energy & Utilities, at Salesforce.

Leslie Herrmann is a scholar-advocate, holding degrees from Regent College (MA, Th.M), and the University of Aberdeen (Ph.D). Her publications center around theologically informed environmental ethics, and most recently, aim at fostering connections between humans and other-than-human members of creation through a constructive interplay between theology, ethics and aesthetics. 

Braden Molhoek is the Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and the Ian G. Barbour Assistant Professor of Theology, Science, Ethics, and Technology at the Graduate Theological Union. Much of his work involves theological and ethical reflection on emerging technology, particularly theological anthropology, virtue ethics, moral enhancement, and the impact of our technological choices on human nature and society. He was Program Director for the grant "Virtuous AI?: Cultural Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtue" funded by the John Templeton Foundation and for the grant supporting this event funded by the Climate Science in Theological Education Program of DoSER/AAAS. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) at the Graduate Theological Union and New College Berkeley.