Artificial intelligence has been everywhere these last three years, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. It looks like it can do everything from managing spreadsheets and categorizing data to editing videos and essays, and this is just scratching the surface. You can ask ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude a question and get an immediate answer. With answers to almost any question so readily available, it is no wonder that many Catholics, both old and young alike, are asking the important question, “Is faith even relevant in my spiritual life if I can easily fact-check any theological question?”
So, let’s address this line of thinking and the major problems it presents: Is faith really relevant when we can fact-check everything so easily? What role might AI have in your spiritual life, and how should you use it?
What Faith Actually Means
There is a major difference in the way the word “faith” is used in common speech compared to how it is used in Catholic Theology. Faith originally comes from the Latin word “fidere” which means “to trust”, and is understood as a supernatural gift from God, specifically faith is “an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by the command of the will moved by God through grace” (CCC 155).
This definition of faith is quite different from the more secular/modern understanding, which is defined as a trust in a person, system, or idea, with or without empirical evidence (Merriam Webster). The Catholic understanding of faith understands that faith is not solely dependent on your confidence in your source or belief system, but it hinges on the stipulation that faith must be an act of the intellect.
Faith, as a virtue, will always be reliant on your cooperation with the grace of God, and while AI can be a helpful tool to strengthen your conviction in the church and her teachings, it can never replace our ability to exercise faith. Furthermore, one has to be careful when using AI, as it is an unreliable tool that isn’t quite as infallible as many people tend to believe.
What AI Actually Is
AI chatbots are prediction engines that are not capable of reason or thought. LLM (Large Language Model) AIs are only capable of analyzing speech and patterns and relating the words to each other. Essentially, LLM AIs make predictions of what an answer to a prompt would be after scouring the internet or a library of information to find similar keywords and matches to your prompt, which is very useful for finding key citations and categorizing different concepts, but still relies on using algorithms and data patterns instead of the product of syllogistic or ‘per se’ argumentation.
Because of these limitations, AI is more suited to help by being a sort of debate simulation, giving philosophers, theologians, and scientists quick summaries of arguments and quotes that they can manually research. However, since AI cannot understand the concepts of what is prompted, it is important for the user to manually verify the context of the quote, if what is being cited is relevant to the prompt, and what kind of information the AI was trained on.
The Problems and Limitations of AI
Often, artificial intelligence tends to be wrong, not due to a lack of information, but due to unreliable sources and omission of data. AIs tend to generate their own sources when there is too little data to complete their prompts and will often speak on issues they have not been trained for, resulting in inaccurate information, straw-man arguments, and, at worst, completely nonsensical answers.
Anyone who has spent a good amount of time using Google’s suggested AI Mode can verify that AI is often more wrong than one might think.
Now that we have discussed what exactly artificial intelligence is and what problems tend to plague these engines, it seems only fitting to discuss exactly how these tools may be able to help your spiritual life and how you can use them as accurately as possible.
Using AI Responsibly in Spiritual Life
The most important thing that you can do when looking at artificial intelligence is to make sure that the AI you use will be helpful for your spiritual life by checking what kind of information that your AI is trained on.
If you are planning on using AI to look into matters of theology or ethics, it's important to know where your information is being gleaned from. Use an AI that is trained on the teaching of the Catholic Church, especially on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Councils of the Church, as well as classical and modern philosophy. Make sure that you are looking at one that is well-versed in science as well, if you are asking the AI questions about apologetics.
This is because most AI’s fail due to omission due to a lack of information, so you want to make sure that your AI will be able to recognize what it is trained on and what is outside the scope of its training.
A good free AI to use is MagisAI, trained on Catholic teaching, Fr. Spitzer’s collection of works, as well as philosophy and theology, and peer-reviewed scientific studies. It is continually updated, is adopted by multiple schools, is endorsed by multiple bishops, and is completely free. MagisAI also has a safeguard mechanism that will not allow it to answer things outside the scope of its training.
AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
God has given us many tools throughout history to help us grow in virtue, and artificial intelligence is no different. Using this new technology to answer complex questions can help us grow in our faith as well as help us explain the Church’s reasons for doctrine, practice, and tradition to atheists and people of other faiths, bringing them home to the fullness of truth and the bosom of the Father.
Thank God for this tool that will enable us to research and sift through studies and academic essays quickly! Thank God for this gift that allows us to study the Catechism and papal encyclicals! Most of all, thank God for the gift of faith, for the gift of reason and humility, and for the trust that we have in Christ and His Church.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen.
