livestreamed from the Dalai Lama Library and Archives in Dharamsala, India
As many of you know, Mind & Life Europe grew out of a rich legacy of interdisciplinary dialogue, most notably between our co-founders, the neurobiologist Francisco J. Varela and the 14th Dalai Lama. In its 39th year, the Mind & Life Dialogues continued this fall in Dharamsala, with a remarkable three-day event that reflected—both critically and capaciously—on this new era of artificial intelligence (AI). The nature of mind has always been at the centre of our inquiry at MLE, and this event was no less an occasion to probe the ontological, epistemological, and ethical implications of a world in which living minds are increasingly confronted with complex, “life-like” technologies such as AI and LLMs. Read on for a more detailed presentation of the programme, which featured some of the most prominent speakers on the topic from around the globe:
As artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly prevalent and contentious part of our everyday lives, we held our 39th Mind & Life Dialogue to explore “Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics”, which was livestreamed from the Dalai Lama Library and Archives in Dharamsala, India, from Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th October 2025, in collaboration with our sister organisation, the Mind & Life Institute, and The Dalai Lama Trust. Mind & Life Europe’s involvement in the event was also generously supported by the Italian Buddhist Union.
Over three days, 20 presenters representing more than 15 institutions worldwide—including leading scientists, scholars, contemplative practitioners, business leaders, and policymakers—gathered in Dharamsala to explore the nature of the human mind as a foundation for considering five key themes:
- Minds – What is intelligence? What distinguishes living minds from artificial minds? What arguments could be made, on the contrary, for AI sharing certain key characteristics with living minds?
- (Dis)entanglement and meaningful relationships – How are living minds, which seem distinct in many regards, nevertheless intimately entangled with artificial minds? What is it about human nature that allows us to form loops with AI on cognitive and bodily levels? What ethical considerations emerge from the deep entanglement of human and machine? What are the potential benefits?
- Collective narratives and possible futures – How do the stories we tell about AI create self-fulfilling prophecies? How does our emergent understanding of the looping process between living minds and artificial minds aid us in developing a more nuanced narrative of AI? What do science and Buddhism have to say about the role of our own minds in creating the conditions for suffering or flourishing that seem “external,” and how is this relevant to the current narratives about AI? How might newly emerging views of AI technology shape ontological-epistemological and primordial ethical questions?
- Diversity and ethics – How might a more complex understanding of intelligence impact the AI systems we develop and the regulations we put in place? How can we create AI systems that support epistemic diversity and justice, without remaining naïve about their potential misuses? How should we think about AI’s potential for innovating through the climate emergency, given the enormous environmental costs of AI? Is it possible to embed ethical values into AI?
- Education – What role should education play in the future of AI, and how can we develop a beneficial form of looping between our educational practices and the practices emerging from AI? How might cultural (or other) diversity play into the differing ways that AI is taught? What are the potential risks of AI to young people? How is AI shaping the youngest minds in terms of attention, concentration, cognitive biases, and emotion regulation? Following on the efforts to evolve education beyond its mechanistic or reductionistic aims, what kind of education might we envision, for the better, in this new age of AI?
Drawing on diverse wisdom and knowledge traditions, this dialogue invited us to at once critically examine the limits and perils of technology and reimagine how a judicious use of this technology might serve compassion, interconnection, and the flourishing of all life.
We invite you to watch this multi-day event, available on Youtube!
Session Times and Topics
Tuesday, October 14 | Broadcasted Live from Dharamsala, India
- 12:00 am New York | 6:00 am Paris | 9:30 am Dharamsala
- Morning Welcome
- 12:30 am New York | 6:30 am Paris | 10:00 am Dharamsala
- Minds | His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche, Shaun Gallagher, and Murray Shanahan, with Marc-Henri Deroche as facilitator
- 4:00 am New York | 10:00 am Paris | 1:30 pm Dharamsala
- (Dis)Entanglement & Meaningful Relationships | Peter Hershock, Anat Perry, and Geshe Lodoe Sangpo, with Kate Nave as facilitator
- 6:00 am New York | 12:00 pm Paris | 3:30 pm Dharamsala
- Contemplative Practice | Jack Kornfield
Wednesday, October 15 | Broadcasted Live from Dharamsala, India
- 12:30 am New York | 6:30 am Paris | 10:00 am Dharamsala
- Collective Narratives & Possible Futures | Thupten Jinpa, Luc Steels, and Emily Bender, with Molly Crockett as facilitator
- 3:30 am New York | 9:30 am Paris | 1:00 pm Dharamsala
- Diversity & Ethics | Iason Gabriel, Merve Hickok, Geshe Thabkhe, and Sasha Luccioni, with Geshe Lodoe Sangpo as facilitator
Thursday, October 16 | Broadcasting Live from Dharamsala, India
- 12:30 am New York | 6:30 am Paris | 10:00 am Dharamsala
- Education | Ani Choyang, Robert Cummings, and Chiara Mascarello, with Marieke van Vugt as facilitator
- 4:00 am New York | 10:00 am Paris | 1:30 pm Dharamsala
- Closing Summary | facilitated by Luc Steels
- 6:00 am New York | 12:00 pm Paris | 3:30 pm Dharamsala
- Contemplative Practice | Ani Choyang, Geshe Sangpo, Geshe Thabkhe
Presenters
Emily M. Bender, PhD University of Washington
Ani Choyang, Jangchub Choeling Nunnery
Molly Crockett, PhD, Princeton University
Robert Cummings, PhD, University of Mississippi
Marc-Henri Deroche, PhD, Kyoto University
Iason Gabriel, PhD, Google DeepMind
Shaun Gallagher, PhD, University of Memphis
Peter Hershock, PhD, East-West Center
Merve Hickok, Center for AI and Digital Policy
Thupten Jinpa, PhD, Mind & Life Institute Board Chair; Compassion Institute Founder; English Translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche, Gyuto Monastery, Thangkar Dechen Choling Monastic Institute
Sasha Luccioni, PhD, Hugging Face
Chiara Mascarello, PhD, University of Padua
Kate (Kathryn) Nave, PhD, University of Edinburgh
Anat Perry, PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Geshe Lodoe Sangpo, Gaden Jangtse Monastery
Murray Shanahan, PhD, Imperial College London, Google DeepMind
Luc Steels, PhD, University of Brussels
Geshe Thabkhe, Sera Jay Monastery
Marieke van Vugt, PhD, University of Groningen
For this event, we extend special thanks for the support of The Dalai Lama Trust, the Hershey Family Foundation, the Adam J. Weissman Foundation, and the Italian Buddhist Union Research Center. In this Year of Compassion, and in celebration of the 90th year of the Dalai Lama, we offer deep gratitude for all the benefactors who made our work possible.
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