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The Thomistic Institute

If ChatGPT Exists, Why Study? – Fr. Chris Gault, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Fr. Chris Gault explores whether AI like ChatGPT should change how or why we study, showing that while machines can accelerate information processing, only human study forms our minds, virtues, and relationship to truth in a way that leads to real fulfillment. This lecture was given on November 18th, 2025, at Galway University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events. About the Speakers: Fr. Chris Vincent Gault, OP, was born and raised in Belfast in the north of Ireland, where he studied medicine at Queen's University Belfast. Qualifying as a doctor in 2013, he began to train as an emergency physician, before leaving medicine after 3 years to enter the Irish Province of the Order of Preachers. Ordained as a Dominican priest in July 2024, and after having completed his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, he was assigned to the convent of St. Mary of the Isles in Cork, where he now resides and ministers, particularly to the youth and young adults of that city. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Aquinas on Knowledge, Freedom of Intellect, Handwriting, Learning, Limits of AI, Plato, Study, Understanding, Virtue and Intellectual Life

Categories
Religion & Spirituality • Christianity
Society & Culture • Philosophy

About Podcast

The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. The thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal Doctor of the Church, is our touchstone.

The Thomistic Institute Podcast features the lectures and talks from our conferences, campus chapters events, intellectual retreats, livestream events, and much more.

Founded in 2009, the Thomistic Institute is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.