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Marketplace All-in-One

Why this Silicon Valley priest wants to teach AI right from wrong

Marketplace All-in-One

Marketplace

News, Business

4.51.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In late May, Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas. His first papal encyclical is an appeal for a more human-centered approach to artificial intelligence. Joining him at the Vatican for the unveiling was Anthropic co-founder, Chris Olah, and Father Brendan McGuire, pastor at St. Simon parish in Silicon Valley.


McGuire joined the priesthood after a career in tech and co-founded the Institute of Technology, Ethics and Culture — a joint initiative of the Vatican and Santa Clara University. He's one of a handful of religious leaders Anthropic has consulted on building ethics into AI.


Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Father Brendan about his experience as a spiritual advisor to AI.

Transcript

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0:00.0

A Silicon Valley priest is working to make AI moral.

0:06.3

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

0:09.2

I'm Megan McCarty Carrino.

0:19.3

In late May, Pope Leo, Pope Leo the 14, released Magnifica Humanitas.

0:25.3

His first papal encyclical is an appeal for a more human-centered approach to artificial intelligence.

0:32.2

Joining him at the Vatican for the unveiling was Anthropic co-founder Chris Ola,

0:37.1

and Father Brendan McGuire, pastor at St. Simon

0:41.1

Parish in Silicon Valley. He joined the priesthood after a career in tech and co-founded the Institute

0:48.3

of Technology, Ethics, and Culture, a joint initiative of the Vatican and Santa Clara University. He's one of a handful of

0:56.1

religious leaders Anthropic has consulted on building ethics into AI. In fall of last year,

1:03.7

Chris Olai, through a mutual friend, Brian Greene, contact me and said, look, I want to make contact

1:09.0

with Rome and with the Vadiga.

1:11.3

And that was the beginning of our deep partnership and dialogue.

1:16.1

And basically they were saying, you know, we're building this technology.

1:20.7

And a couple of years, we're not clear if we're going to be able to continue to control it.

1:26.5

It is so vast and so powerful.

1:28.7

We need help. He says, we're mathematicians. We're programmers. And I think you can help us get help

1:34.1

from other religions as well. So it was appeal for for accompaniment, appeal for dialogue,

1:40.5

appeal for help. So I knew at that moment, that meeting, that this was the moment,

1:44.4

in a sense, I was, you know, had been prepared for. And so all my previous connections,

1:49.3

all my previous technology and pastor came to, to bear in that moment. And I leaned in hard.

1:55.7

Why do you think it's so important for the church to take such an active role in the discussion about AI, the development

...

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