What happens when a theologian from Ukraine, a peacebuilder from South Sudan, a Scout from Bangladesh, and an AI developer from Myanmar sit down to talk about artificial intelligence? You get the kind of conversation that rarely happens, and that KAICIID is making a point of hosting.

On 7 May 2026, the International Dialogue Centre - KAICIID, through its E-Learning Unit, will convene Digital Bridges, Not Divides: Ethics, Empathy and AI, a live online dialogue bringing together youth leaders, faith practitioners, and senior thinkers from across the world. At the centre of the discussion is an increasingly urgent question: who gets to shape the values that guide our digital future?

The webinar is part of KAICIID’s NextGen TALKS series, which creates space for intergenerational exchange on issues at the intersection of dialogue, identity, and global change. Coming shortly after the United Nations International Girls in ICT Day, marked on 23 April, the discussion offers a timely opportunity to reflect on how young people, especially girls and young women, can help shape more ethical and inclusive digital futures.

Progress and Responsibility

Artificial intelligence is moving fast. In many cases, it is moving faster than the ethical frameworks designed to govern it.

For young people around the world, digital platforms and artificial intelligence are not abstract policy questions. They are shaping how young people learn, how they relate to one another, and how they understand themselves. Yet the conversations that determine how these technologies are designed, deployed, and regulated too often take place without the meaningful participation of young people, particularly those from the Global South and faith communities.

KAICIID’s position is clear: that absence is a problem, and dialogue is part of the solution.

The Digital Bridges, Not Divides webinar will draw on two major United Nations frameworks adopted under the 2024 Pact for the Future: the Global Digital Compact, which calls for an open, inclusive, and human-centred digital future grounded in universal human rights, and the Declaration on Future Generations, which affirms that decisions made today must not compromise what is possible for those who come after us. The session will also engage with the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a 2020 document from the Pontifical Academy for Life that calls for shared responsibility across governments, institutions, and the private sector to ensure that technological progress serves human dignity.

These are not just policy texts. In KAICIID’s framing, they are invitations for interreligious and intercultural dialogue to do what it does best: move values from the page into practice.

From Dialogue to Practical Principles

The 90-minute webinar will be structured as a moderated panel dialogue, with live audience polls, direct Q&A, and a demonstration of Harmoniq, an AI tool developed by panellist Harry Myo Lin. The tool explores how artificial intelligence can be built with ethics and cross-cultural empathy at its core.

The session is not designed as a one-off event. It is the first part of a two-stage process. The webinar will generate shared insights and reflections that will feed directly into a follow-up consultative session, where participants will co-create practical, dialogue-based principles for ethical and inclusive digital engagement. These outputs will inform future learning resources on KAICIID’s Connect2Dialogue platform, reaching practitioners and partner networks worldwide.

The conversation will bring together voices working across peacebuilding, youth leadership, theology, technology, and interreligious dialogue. Speakers include Lejla Hasandedic, a KAICIID Fellow from Bosnia and Herzegovina whose work connects psychology, trauma, and social cohesion; Ruhi Rusaba, KAICIID’s 2025 E-Learning Champion from Bangladesh and a Scout recognised for her work with street children in Dhaka; Harry Myo Lin, a Myanmar-born AI developer based in Austria and creator of Harmoniq; Patrick Godi, a South Sudanese peacebuilder active in the IDove Global Youth Network; and Taras Dzyubanskyy, a KAICIID Fellow, theologian, and Religious Issues Adviser to the Mayor of Lviv, Ukraine.

Together, they will explore how young people, faith actors, and technology practitioners can help shape digital spaces that are more ethical, inclusive, and grounded in human dignity.

What Faith Brings to the AI Conversation

It would be easy to frame AI ethics as a purely technical or regulatory challenge. KAICIID’s approach is different.

Interreligious and intercultural dialogue offers something that policy frameworks alone cannot: a shared language of values. Concepts such as compassion, stewardship, justice, and accountability are not invented by AI governance bodies. They are embedded in the moral traditions that billions of people live by. When those traditions are brought into conversation with one another, and with the realities of digital life, they can help build a richer and more durable ethical foundation.

This is the premise behind Digital Bridges, Not Divides. Dialogue is not only the topic. It is the method.

Join the Conversation

The webinar is free and open to the public. It will take place on 7 May 2026 at 14:00 Lisbon time, UTC+1, via Zoom, and will be conducted in English.

KAICIID is reaching out to partners, Fellows, educators, policymakers, youth networks, and dialogue practitioners. Special invitations are also being extended to participants in KAICIID’s Youth Strategy consultations.

Find out more and register: [Registration link]

This webinar is convened by KAICIID’s E-Learning Unit. For more information, contact the KAICIID E-Learning Unit at elearning@kaiciid.org

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