Ought I Use AI Assisted Writing? | Fr. Ambrose Little, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Fr. Ambrose Little examines the philosophical and ethical implications of AI-assisted writing by drawing on Plato’s myth of Thoth, Aristotle, and Aquinas, arguing that while new technologies like AI can threaten essential intellectual virtues, they can also be used wisely if we seek a balanced, virtue-oriented approach to knowledge and memory.

This lecture was given on February 11th, 2025, at North Carolina State University.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speaker:

Fr. Ambrose Little is the assistant director of the Thomistic Institute. He is originally from Connecticut and entered the Dominican Order in 2007 and was ordained a priest in 2013. Before entering the Dominican Order, he graduated from The Catholic University of America with a BA in philosophy. After ordination, he completed a Licentiate in Philosophy at The Catholic University of America and then taught for two years at Providence College. After completing his Ph.D. in philosophy in the summer of 2021, he started teaching at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. He specializes in the philosophies of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, with an emphasis on their study of nature and the soul. He also studies topics at the intersection between philosophy and science.

This project/publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63391 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Keywords: AI-Assisted Writing, Aquinas, Aristotle, Intellectual Virtue, Is-Ought Distinction, Memory and Recollection, Myth of Thoth, Plato’s Phaedrus, Technological Ethics, Thomistic Philosophy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events,
0:21.7	visit us at Thomisticinstitute.org.
0:24.9	All right, I want to begin this evening
0:27.9	with a myth composed by Plato.
0:31.1	Admittedly, it's a long quote,
0:33.1	but I suspect you'll see its relevance very quickly.
0:36.8	This is called the myth of Thoth. Also the myth
0:39.6	of Thuth, but I had to figure out which way I found easier to pronounce. So I'm going to stick
0:42.7	with the myth of Thothoth. So Plato writes this. Among the ancient gods of Naukratus in Egypt,
0:49.3	there was one to whom the bird called Ibis is sacred. The name of the divinity was Thoth, and it was he who
0:57.0	first discovered number and calculation, geometry, and astronomy, as well as the game of checkers
1:03.4	and dice and above all else writing. Now, the king of all Egypt at that time was Thamas.
1:10.6	Thoth came to exhibit his arts to him and urged
1:13.4	him to disseminate them to all the Egyptians. Thomas asked him about the usefulness of each art,
1:19.7	while Thoth was explaining it. Thames praised him for whatever he thought was right in his
1:24.9	explanations, and criticized him for whatever he thought was wrong. The explanations, and criticized him for whatever he thought
1:28.0	was wrong.
1:29.3	The story goes that Thames said too much to Thoth, both for and against each art, which
1:34.5	it would take too long to repeat.
	...

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