Philip Butler is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of neuroscience, technology, spirituality, and Black studies, with a focus on how emerging technologies shape public life and governance. He advises institutions on artificial intelligence, ethics, and equity, helping leaders navigate the social, economic, and spiritual implications of new tools for their communities and constituencies.
His first book, Black Transhuman Liberation Theology, examines how Black communities can integrate technology and spirituality to build materially liberating futures, offering a framework that is directly relevant to policy conversations about inclusion, innovation, and risk. He is also the editor of Critical Black Futures, a volume that uses critical and speculative methods to explore possible worlds not yet realized—and the policy choices that could bring them closer or push them further away.
Across his work, Butler develops “disruptive” ethical models and scenario-based approaches that help decision makers anticipate downstream impacts of AI systems on trust, belonging, and opportunity. He collaborates with partners in education, philanthropy, faith communities, and the tech sector to design technologies and institutional practices that honor diverse racial and cultural identities rather than treating them as afterthoughts. His goal is to ensure that the digital infrastructures and AI ecosystems being built today support resilient, flourishing individual and communities—in addition to offering state, local, and federal leaders concrete language and tools to pursue that mandate.
The Seekr Project 