Leading Ethically in the Age of AI
Leading Ethically in the Age of AI
A three-day executive seminar offered by Harvard Divinity School.
Program Overview
January 11-13, 2027 | David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University | Boston, MA
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming society faster than our ethical frameworks can keep pace. This three-day executive seminar offered by Harvard Divinity School (HDS) introduces leaders from technology, business, government, and civil society to religious, philosophical, and humanistic perspectives on the ethical challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence.
Reflecting Harvard Divinity School’s distinctive commitment to religious pluralism, the course draws on diverse traditions and worldviews to explore questions of human dignity, responsibility, justice, meaning, and flourishing in an AI-driven world.
More than an exploration of ethical theory, the seminar equips participants with actionable tools for ethical decision-making, governance, and leadership, enabling them to translate moral reflection into responsible action within their organizations and across the broader AI ecosystem.
Who Should Apply?
Designed for C-suite executives, technology professionals, policymakers, and organizational leaders, the seminar offers a rare opportunity to engage AI ethics through a broad, cross-cultural, and multi-religious lens and to develop more thoughtful, responsible approaches to leadership in an age of intelligent machines.
Learning Outcomes
By the conclusion of the seminar, participants will be able to:
- Lead conversations about ethical issues concerning AI across diverse stakeholder groups and translate ethical reflection into effective action.
- Apply practical frameworks for ethical judgment to organizational strategy, product development, governance, and public leadership.
- Draw on religious, philosophical, and humanistic traditions to inform ethical decision-making in AI contexts.
- Identify the most significant ethical, social, and cultural challenges posed by contemporary AI systems.
- Recognize how narratives, assumptions, and values shape the design, deployment, and governance of AI technologies.
Participants will receive a Harvard Divinity School certificate of completion at the end of the seminar.
Program Details
Deeply rooted in religious traditions, the study of ethics offers rich resources for navigating the existential, social, and moral questions raised by AI—resources often absent from contemporary discussions of AI ethics. By bringing these traditions into conversation with contemporary debates about AI, this course equips participants with practical frameworks to make informed ethical judgments and translate those judgments into responsible leadership and action.
A distinctive feature of the course is its use of a comprehensive diagnostic framework for AI harms and mitigations. Participants will learn to identify and evaluate risks across multiple dimensions, including:
- Physical and existential threats, from safety failures to long-term societal risks
- Infrastructure-level inequities, including data extraction, labor exploitation, and uneven access to technological benefits
- Psychosocial and cultural harms, such as social fragmentation, attention capture, and impacts on human relationships
- Narratives, myths, and ideologies that normalize, obscure, or justify technological harms
Informed by multireligious ethical considerations, participants in this course will grapple with questions of responsibility, human dignity, and the social consequences of technological change.
Cost of Attendance
The cost of the seminar is $6,850. This is inclusive of a three-night stay at the Atlas Hotel (check-in on Sunday, January 10 and check out on Wednesday, January 13). Hotel accommodations and daily meals (breakfast and lunch on January 11-13, and dinner on January 11 and 12).
Travel and transportation are not included.
Cancellation Policy: If you need to cancel your participation, you must submit your request in writing to aiethics@hds.harvard.edu. Cancellation requests received 90 days prior to the program start date will result in a full refund of the program tuition. Cancellation requests received 60 days prior to the program start date are subject to a cancellation fee equal to one-half of the program tuition. Cancellation requests received fewer than 60 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a cancellation fee equal to the program tuition.
Program at a Glance
This three-day executive seminar is located at the new David Rubenstein Treehouse conference center across from the Harvard Business School campus.
One of the critical elements of ethical leadership is thinking through the plurality of values of our communities. This seminar delivers an understanding of AI benefits and harms in relation to a range of ethical frameworks—equipping leaders to think and lead with more awareness on the ethical stakes.