Father Brendan McGuire used to be a Silicon Valley technology executive. Now he’s hearing their confessions. Today, the Irish-born pastor of St. Simon Catholic Parish in Los Altos, California, is helping to shape the moral conscience of the artificial intelligence industry.
Earlier this year, he was among the faith leaders invited by Anthropic, the AI company behind the chatbot Claude, to advise on the creation of an ethical framework to govern how the AI system handles complex moral questions.
Father McGuire, 60, holds engineering and computer science degrees from Trinity College Dublin and completed Stanford University’s executive business program. He spent years in Silicon Valley as a technology executive before leaving it all behind to be ordained a priest of the Diocese of San José 26 years ago.
“I came from the industry,” Father McGuire told OSV News. “My heart’s never left it, but my heart is really with the Lord.”
“I’ve always felt my role was to bridge those two worlds together,” he said.
In an interview at the Vatican after the May 25 promulgation of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Father McGuire underlined the urgency of the pope’s message.
“What I’m most worried about is us as humanity not taking this moment seriously,” he said. “If we stay silent and just be passive, then this could go very wrong for us.”
The Silicon Valley priest said he was particularly struck by Pope Leo’s call for a “disarmament of the algorithms,” a deliberate slowing of the competitive race to develop ever more powerful AI systems.
“There’s an algorithmic race on,” Father McGuire said. “And to disarm that would mean that we need to be thoughtful about that. … It can be dangerous, just like the nuclear arms race is dangerous. And I thought that was really powerful.”
In 2019, Father McGuire co-founded the Institute for Technology, Ethics and Culture, a formal partnership between Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, bringing together business, academic and faith leaders to address the moral challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
“What Pope Leo’s encyclical today really brings to the fore is a recentering of artificial intelligence around human flourishing,” he said.
Father McGuire was emphatic that the pope’s challenge is not addressed to technologists alone. Governments, regulatory bodies, ordinary users and even those who never touch a smartphone have a stake in how this technology develops, he argued.
And, he said, everyone has a responsibility to engage.
“This isn’t just about technical people in Silicon Valley or investors or business people making a decision. This is for all of us to play a role and to be involved at all different levels,” he said. “Even the non-user needs to use his voice. Why? Because they’re going to be affected by this….”
From OSV News
Blah blah blah. I was greatly disappointed in the pope’s encyclical, which almost everyone seems to be raving about as if it’s profound. It was inadequate. You want to see what the encyclical should have been? Click on the link below:
https://ratioetfides.substack.com/p/imago-verbi-the-encyclical-that-needed
If we had a pope who authored and signed that? I would have been very impressed.
Fr. McGuire is not a reliable guide for Catholics. He publicly teaches the heresy of universalism. From one of his homilies: “You see, my friends, we are on a dock that we call Earth. And when our loved ones die, we bid farewell to them as they head out into their eternal horizon. But we believe that all our ancestors and all the angels and saints who have died before us are at that Heavenly Dock and wait with great joy and jubilation to welcome them home to their eternal destiny. For our part, we remain here for now. Every one of us will take that final journey home someday.” And, he publicly, widely (on the internet as well as in a homily) and severely criticized, really maligned and mis-characterized, Dr. Ralph Martin, who was invited to speak to the priests of the Diocese of San Jose. And, this year, Fr. McGuire wrote a “beautiful” poem for the LGBTQ+ ministry at his parish.
https://stsimon.church/beloved-blessed/
McGuire preaches the road to heaven is broad and the gate is wide. Jesus teaches, ““Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Whose advise will you follow?
Pray that he stops misleading others.
If AI is the ‘tip of the spear’ , disarming AI might be a form of turning the military’s sword into a plowshare before a war is fought.Adversaries have their AI ripped and ready. Secretary of Defense Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply- chain risk in early March after it refused to let its AI model meet the warfighting needs of autonomus weapons systems. Fr McGuire wrote the ‘Claude Constition’ for anthropic to rein it in.He has been with Anthrooic only since early 2016
On fr McGuire’s parish website he describes saint Simon’s as an ‘inclusive’ parish.
Yup. Look here:
https://stsimon.church/beloved-blessed/
Going all-in with the pro-gay at St. Simon. Fr. Brendan McGayer, seems to be.
I think it means they include MAGA types, NRA members, Republicans (there are nearly a dozen left in the Bay Area) and members of Courage and EnCourage as well as truck drivers, cops, construction workers and others with household incomes of only a quarter million dollars per year. (No, the latter can’t afford to live in a place with an average annual household income of about $420 thousand.)
And, wait, Courage and EnCourage are not permitted to meet in parishes or advertise in the Diocese of San Jose. That diocese was described by a secular newspaper years ago at “the most gay-friendly Catholic diocese in the US.”
Regardless, the place is inclusive even though they have virtually no homeless, immigrant (except for Indian and Chinese high-tech workers) or working-class populations. They include people who really care about the poor, even those who can afford to buy only from BMW, Mercedes, Tesla or Lexus.
What does he mean by saying that his heart has never left the industry?
If his heart is there, why did he leave the industry?
Is his heart also in the Church and his priesthood?
Hopefully as a vastly higher priority?
How many “places” can one’s heart be?
Ezekiel 11:19-20 comes to mind: the Lord says, “I will give them an undivided heart… Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”