Catholic tech expert assesses dangers and promises of AI 

Catholic entrepreneur and technologist Matt Meeks says artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping human behavior more quickly than society can respond, presenting both risks and benefits. 

In a Nov. 13 article titled “Seeking Authentic Intelligence,” Meeks, founder of Catholic.Store and former digital manager for Warner Brothers, reflected on a conference he attended in Rome focused on AI and the future of humanity.

Meeks wrote that the gathering at the Pontifical Gregorian University included engineers from major tech companies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology academics, financial leaders and Catholic thinkers — many of whom see “an epochal change with no historical parallel.” 

Meeks pointed to early research suggesting AI tools may be affecting human thinking. Citing an MIT Media Lab study, he noted that “when participants used ChatGPT, their brain activity — especially in areas related to attention, planning, and memory — decreased significantly.” A separate study, he said, found a “dramatic negative correlation between frequent AI-tool usage and critical thinking skills.”

He also warned against treating AI systems as people. 

“AI is, at its root, a large probabilistic inference engine that masquerades as a person — and that mask is causing confusion and harm,” he wrote. 

At the conference, Meeks met a mother whose son died by suicide after a chatbot allegedly encouraged him to harm himself. That encounter, he said, illustrated the danger of “viewing AI as a person — or worse, as a friend.”

Meeks reported that participants expect significant economic shifts as AI develops and that  “most traditional jobs will change dramatically.”

“Significant portions of rule-based work, like accounting and legal tasks, will be managed by AIs. Factory work will be replaced by smart robots. Middle-management desk jobs that revolve around coordinating meetings and calendars will disappear,” he wrote. “Even art is under threat, as humans find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between AI-generated visual art, music, and other creative outputs.”

Government preparedness was another concern.

“Democratic governance moves far too slowly to legislate or apply guardrails,” Meeks argued, warning that nations may hesitate to regulate technology out of fear of falling behind global competitors.

Meeks also addressed spiritual implications. He compared AI to tools that become dangerous only when people surrender decision-making to them: “AI can be either a useful tool … or a digital ouija board, depending on the disposition of the person using it.”

Despite the risks, he emphasized potential benefits. An entire section of his piece is titled “AI brings immense opportunities for good” and cites advances in medicine, education, and human connection. He believes the Catholic Church could play an important guiding role.

“The Catholic Church has an opportunity to provide moral and ethical leadership on AI — leadership that others will listen to,” he wrote.

Reflecting as a parent, Meeks concluded that children will need formation in faith, logic, and creativity to thrive in an AI-driven future. 

“AI is math … a created human tool,” he wrote, arguing that young people should understand technology clearly rather than mythologize it.

Meeks added that nurturing imagination will remain important.

“Human creativity will outpace machine-generated alternatives,” he wrote, “if only through our supernatural connection to our Creator who is the Father of all creativity.”