Can Artificial Intelligence Bring Us Closer to God? The Ethics of Algorithmic Faith
Can Artificial Intelligence Bring Us Closer to God?
The Ethics of Algorithmic Faith
🎄 A Special Christmas Edition by The AI Collective 🎄
Hosted by Ana Catarina de Alencar, Resident Philosopher at The AI Collective (Paris)
December 17th · 5:00 PM CEST · Online ·
In this special Christmas session, we reflect on one of the most intimate and provocative questions of our time:
Can artificial intelligence play a role in our spiritual life, our prayers, and our search for meaning?
AI is no longer just answering questions. It is offering guidance, prayers, confessions, spiritual companionship, and even simulated divine responses. Across the world, people are turning to AI for comfort, meaning, and answers traditionally sought through faith, sacred texts, and spiritual leaders.
But what happens when the sacred is filtered through an algorithm?
In this session, we explore the emerging intersection of artificial intelligence, spirituality, and ethics, a space where technology begins to step into roles once reserved for religious authorities, communities, and the transcendent.
Together, we will reflect on questions such as:
• How spiritual and religious AI applications are already being used by believers across different traditions
• The emotional, ethical, and theological tensions created by algorithmic guidance
• Whether an algorithm can truly mediate transcendence or only simulate it
• How AI may reshape inner life, prayer, spiritual authority, and religious communities
• The fine line between support, influence, dependency, and manipulation
This is not only a theological conversation, but an ethical and human one. A reflection on authority, vulnerability, identity, and the future of spirituality in an AI-mediated world.
Special Guests
Matthew Harvey Sanders – CEO & Founder of Longbeard AI
A former Canadian Infantry Officer and Catholic seminarian, Matthew later worked closely with the Archdiocese of Toronto and multiple Vatican institutions. Today, he leads Longbeard AI, the company behind Magisterium AI, the world’s #1 answer engine for the Catholic faith, now used in more than 165 countries, and Vulgate, an advanced AI-powered library supporting Vatican and Pontifical universities. He also helped develop the world’s first Catholic language model, “Ephrem.” Matthew is widely recognized as a thought leader in faith-based AI and has been featured in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Find our Speaker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-harvey-sanders/
Father Michael Baggot, LC, – Catholic Priest and Bioethics Professor based in Rome
Father Baggot is currently a Visiting Scholar of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. He is also an Associate Professor of Bioethics and Theology at pontifical universities in Rome and currently teaches within Vatican academic institutions. He is affiliated with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and serves on advisory boards focused on technology and human dignity. His research includes AI, transhumanism, virtue ethics, and the protection of human and spiritual flourishing. He is the editor of Enhancement Fit for Humanity (Routledge, 2022) and regularly appears on major media outlets and international forums.
Find our Speaker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-baggot-7b8555a3/
This event will be shared not only with The AI Collective’s international community of 80,000+ members, but also with Catholic and Protestant communities, academic institutions, and spiritual leaders who are actively reflecting on the impact of AI in faith and society.
If AI can simulate empathy, memory, and belief…
can it also influence — or redefine — faith itself?
Join the conversation.
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