COMMENTARY: Faith and Reason Are Complementary

By David Brennan

Recently Christopher Olah, the co-founder of AI company Anthropic, gave his own remarks at the presentation Pope Leo XIV made at the Vatican introducing his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), which is about Safeguardingthe Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It was awelcome sight to see these two men, one a leader in science andthe other a leader of faith, working together on this importantissue.

I say this because there has been a prolonged attempt to divide faith from reason and to insist that the two are mutually exclusive. From the Catholic perspective there is no divide between faith and reason – for as Pope St. John Paul II expressed it – faith and reason are “...like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”

In his remarks at the Vatican Mr. Olah said, “We dwell so often on what divides us, but humanity, full of dignity and conscience, has so much common ground. In conversations we at Anthropic have had with leaders across faith and cultural traditions, we found one shared and deeply held conviction: if this technology is coming it must go well – for our common home, and for the children to come.”

Although it was the Pope who invited Mr. Olah to the Vatican, in his own remarks the Pope said to his guest, “I accept your nvitation to walk together, to listen and to speak and together to

find the way for humanity, in this time of artificial intelligence.”

My favorite part of the Pope’s remarks were when he said, “Artificial intelligence can be a construction site of history from within a horizon of communion, in which technical progress learns to serve human life.”

For his part, Mr. Olah said, “Today is just the beginning, the start of a long collaboration between those of us who are building this and those who can see what we, from inside, cannot. This event is a powerful illustration of the form this global project of goodwill might take.”

It is perhaps fitting that Mr. Olah’s company is named Anthropic, which derived from the ancient Greek Anthropos means human. The name reflects Anthropic’s self identity as a public benefit corporation focused on responsible AI for long-term human benefit.

Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, including human origins, biology, societies, cultures, languages, and development across time and space.

The word Catholic also derives from Ancient Greek, Katholou, meaning according to the whole or universally. The Church is called universal because its mission is to spread the Gospel to all people, in all places and in all times.

The Church holds a tremendous breadth of understanding of anthropology, of the magnificently human – whose flourishing AI should be at the service of.

David Brennan is a long-time Franklin resident.