“Faced with cultural changes throughout history, the Church has never remained passive. She has sought to illuminate every age with the light and hope of Christ by discerning good from evil, in what was good from what needed to be changed, transformed, and purified. Today we are in a culture where the technological dimension is present in almost everything, especially as the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence will mark a new era in the lives of individuals and societies as a whole. This is a challenge that we must face, reflecting on the authenticity of our witness, on our ability to listen and speak, and on our capacity to understand and to be understood. We have a duty to work together to develop a way of thinking, to develop a language of our time that gives voice to love. It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts.”
– Pope Leo XIV
Intro
Hallow’s goal is to play some small role in leading people into an authentic relationship with God – to help people pray, to “create an encounter of hearts,” as Pope Leo said. Our job is to try to use the tools that God has given us to best build up His Kingdom. This includes thinking through and praying about how new technology can be used to further Hallow’s mission. This is a first draft of our philosophy on how we think about AI and plan to use it.
As Catholics, we’re fortunate to have a rich, deep history of morality and philosophy to draw from as we think about these things. There are many resources out there that can help guide us in how we might think about AI. With that said, the point of this document is not to teach AI ethics. Hallow is simply a group of friends who discovered the beauty of the Church and are trying to share it as best we can. My hope is to learn from the Church’s teaching on this topic and think through how it might apply to us. Please send us feedback. I’m eager to read more and adjust our thinking with new developments. As in all things, we are obedient to the Church and will continue to look to her for guidance.
1. AI is a tool, not a person.
AI must be seen for what it is: a tool, and nothing more. For more than a century, we’ve seen a trend in the corporate world toward valuing people only for the metrics of their output. This is only exacerbated by AI. This type of thinking views humans as mere producers rather than creators – as cogs in the machine rather than persons with souls. At Hallow, we value our people as persons. You are more than the work you create. No one at Hallow will lose their job to AI.
Like any tool, AI can be used for good or for evil. When used correctly, technology should increase the time we spend doing dignifying work. As St. Pope John Paul II wrote, when technology is used correctly, “it facilitates [man’s] work, perfects, accelerates and augments it.” At Hallow, we should aim to use AI in a way that allows us to spend more time on work where we can have the greatest impact – where we are most fulfilled and alive.
“Between a machine and a human being, only the latter is truly a moral agent—a subject of moral responsibility who exercises freedom in his or her decisions and accepts their consequences. It is not the machine but the human who is in relationship with truth and goodness, guided by a moral conscience that calls the person ‘to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil.’”
– Antiqua et Nova
There are many things AI cannot do, and will never be able to do. It cannot receive inspiration from God, nor can it discern good from evil. Only humans are “moral agents” and can discern God’s will or discern what work to do in the first place. The responsibility for any choice or work that uses AI is always on the man or woman who chooses to use it.
In today’s world, especially in Silicon Valley, we have a tendency to turn AI into more than it is. Some have even likened AI to a new consciousness or a created god. This is nonsense. AI is not an omniscient or divine being, but a set of algorithms around a large amount of data that only mimics human attributes.
Because AI is only a tool, we also have to be careful not to overly rely on it. If we turn to it immediately when any sort of creative or critical thinking is needed, we will start to lose the very qualities that make us human: qualities like creativity, discernment, reason, originality, and moral responsibility. St. John Paul II warned, “technology can cease to be man’s ally and become almost his enemy . . . when, through exalting the machine, it reduces man to the status of its slave.” Always be discerning when and how you seek to use it.
2. Hallow content is and will always be created by a person with a soul, not AI.
AI does not have a soul – it cannot pray. It cannot have a relationship, administer or receive the sacraments, or provide pastoral guidance. All prayer content on Hallow is and will continue to be created by a human being. With that said, we believe AI can be a powerful tool for Hallow and each of us in our journey.
A customer support AI chat can instantly answer the most frequently asked questions. A content writer might use AI to find mistakes in grammar so that they have more time to carefully craft a prayer. A developer might use AI to find a bug to free up their time to critically think about a complicated algorithm. All of this is in service of allowing our team to spend more time doing the work that matters most.
We will never try to pass off the work of AI as the work of a human being. We will not personify AI. We’ll give clear disclaimers on anything, like a text transcription, that is done automatically. Of course, we will continue to ensure, as always, that all of our content on the app is 100% in-line with Church teaching.
3. We believe, though, that we have an opportunity to use this tool in a way that helps each of us grow closer to God.
Over the last several years building Hallow we’ve seen firsthand how God can use technology to bring people closer to Him. We believe that He can do the same thing with this new tool, and, though this might be a narrow gate, we have an opportunity to help make it happen.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” – Matthew 7:13-14
The way of Christ has always been the narrow gate – hard to walk, yet leading to life. As AI reshapes our world, it will be more often for distraction or destruction, and ultimately for evil. Yet we believe God calls us to this narrow path: to work and pray through how this new technology might draw people toward Him and help each of us live a life of faith and love.
We must use it to serve the spiritually poor – reaching out especially to the fallen away. We’ve already seen how an AI-powered search tool in the app can help guide people to trusted resources faster than ever before. We must also find ways to use it to help the materially poor, bringing resources to those who might otherwise be unable to access them. When we use AI at Hallow, our final purpose must always align with our mission to help everyone, not just a select few, grow in prayer and love of God.
Closing thoughts
The progress on AI is impressive, but it is still only a piece of technology. True progress, however, is not technological – it is moral and spiritual. We shouldn’t mistake more technology for growth. From Pope Francis:
“Technoscience, when well directed, can produce important means of improving the quality of human life… Yet it must also be recognized that [new technologies] have given us tremendous power… There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power means “an increase of ‘progress’ itself”… as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such. The fact is that ‘contemporary man has not been trained to use power well’, because our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience.”
Using any new technology for good is a narrow path, but we trust that God will help show us the way. Our goal is to help others be transformed by His love. For our use of AI to be effective, it must point others to Christ. For “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6].
This is the lens through which we must see all of our work at Hallow. We are hopeful that AI may be one of the many tools we might use to help us do this work, but in the end, to call back to Pope Leo, “It is not simply a matter of generating content, but of creating an encounter of hearts.” Please pray for us as we try our best to use technology responsibly in service of that mission.