Software CEO tells Catholic uni panel AI won't take out jobs, but it could take out brains
- Reference: 1758893535
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/26/ai_catholic_uni/
- Source link:
Will Wilson, CEO of reliability platform Antithesis, was part of the panel pondering how Christians should consider AI, the technology’s threats and the church’s role in the debate.
According to a [1]report by the Catholic News Agency, Wilson rejected the idea of mass joblessness due to AI as "a very silly fear because human desires and human wants are infinite, and therefore, we always find new things for people to do."
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What was a worry, he continued, was that even though AI was "not actually intelligent," people could use it as a substitute for human intelligence, losing their own in the process.
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Also on the panel, Father Michael Baggot worried that "artificial intimacy is going to distract us from, and deter us from, the deep interpersonal bonds that are central to our happiness and our flourishing."
He called for guardrails on AI to stop it capturing individuals' "minds but … also our affections."
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Fr Baggot cited the example of Magisterium AI, a Catholic chatbot. He sits on the scholarly advisory board for the service, and said its creators had worked to prevent it being "anthropomorphic" adding, "We do not want people having an intimate relationship with it."
He also said that when it came to the dangers of AI, "The Church is in a privileged position to leverage its incredible patrimony, its reflection on the human person, [and] human flourishing."
Of course, the Church has long experience when it comes to battling extra-human entities getting a grip on individuals' minds and affections. Not least its 1,000 strong cadre of exorcists, 300 of which met in Rome last week for the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists.
[6]Nice try, sinners: Pope nixes idea of AI pontiff blessing netizens
[7]AI Jesus is ready to dispense advice from a booth in historic Swiss church
[8]Italian premier taps Pope Francis to warn G7 of AI disaster if ethics ignored
[9]AI Catholic 'priest' defrocked after recommending Gatorade baptism
According to a press release, via Google translate, the closing [10]keynote of the conference, by Beatrice Ugolini, a criminologist and advisor to the Gris Institute, addressed the relationship between the occult and AI.
AI, Ugolini argued, favoured "the emergence of new magical and operative instruments, the development of unprecedented divination techniques thanks to algorithms that allow the collection of personal data, and even new forms of necromancy and communication with the deceased."
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So let's hope Wilson really is right about mass unemployment, otherwise the AI devil really will be making some pretty tricky work for idle hands. ®
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[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266761/catholic-university-of-america-panel-explores-how-christians-should-think-about-ai
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aNa4iEKZSqlqcxxs6x_15gAAAlU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aNa4iEKZSqlqcxxs6x_15gAAAlU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aNa4iEKZSqlqcxxs6x_15gAAAlU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aNa4iEKZSqlqcxxs6x_15gAAAlU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/19/pope_vetoes_ai_avatar/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/23/ai_jesus_peterskapelle/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/12/pope_g7_ai_warning/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/03/ai_catholic_priest/
[10] https://www.aieinternational.es/comunicado-de-prensa-xv-congreso-internacional-de-la-asociacion-internacional-exorcistas/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aNa4iEKZSqlqcxxs6x_15gAAAlU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Future Confession
Father, I have sinned. I used AI to pray for me and now I can't remember how to pray. Can you help me?
The standard reply will obviously fail. Therefore, there is only one way for these sinners: Hell (*) .
(*) Hell: a fictional place where you don't get bored; see also Heaven (a fictional place where you go to die from boredom).
Re: Future Confession
" Hell: a fictional place where you don't get bored; see also Heaven (a fictional place where you go to die from boredom). "
I imagine Hell is like the castle (confession¹ dial) in [1]Heaven Sent where each day ends in the same way no matter what you do to avoid it based on your recall the previous days' experiences.
Heaven is the same but your memory is mercifully erased before the commencement of the next day.
¹ remarkable how religious ideas get recycled into ostensibly secular fiction.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_Sent_(Doctor_Who)
the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists.
Sound a lot more fun than your typical geek tech bun fight. :)
" La investigadora Beatrice Ugolini, criminóloga y asesora del Gris, quien con eficaz concisión ilustró la relación entre el neoocultismo y la inteligencia artificial "
Investigadora Bea sound likes a wild lady — the relation between the neo·occult¹ and AI melts my butter every time. ;)
If they want to burn Altman and fellow heretics I would happily lend her a box of matches (and supply a jerry can of diesel.)
Amazes me that in the 21st Century a major global religion still goes in for this Bell, Book and Candle nonsense.
¹ whatever that might be.
Re: the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists.
I think the important point here is that a lot of people who believe in the occult are taking to using AI and it is reinforcing their beliefs.
The church allow but does not seem to encourage exorcism as a practice as it restricts it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Association_of_Exorcists
Re: the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists.
I think the important point here is that a lot of people who believe in the occult are taking to using AI and it is reinforcing their beliefs.
The church allow but does not seem to encourage exorcism as a practice as it restricts it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Association_of_Exorcists
I assume neo-occult is contemporary versions of the the occult. There are quite a number that have sprung up in the last 100 years or more.
Cant think of a bettter time for..
a real-world Butlerian Jihad.......
"thou shalt not make a machine in the image of a human mind"
"People could use [AI] as a substitute for human intelligence"
Haven't religious people been doing that with god for millennia? The battery in my irony meter seems to have discharged unexpectedly.
They only ever talk about the AI tool and the vague marketing bullshit they use to sell it to you.
They NEVER talk about the process or the results... only the tool.
Because they know that if they tried to sell it to you based on the process and the results, you'd tell them to fuck off.
Tell them to fuck off anyway... you'll be a happier, smarter person for it.
School kids are now using the phrase 'that's so AI' to describe things they don't believe and are untrue.... there's hope for the next generation after all.