Saint Francis and Sister Artificial Intelligence

Solomeo, 20 August 2026


Eight hundred years ago, a man died, a great and uncommon saint who would come to be admired throughout the world. He lived loving God and humankind, respecting the law, and calling all the phenomena of Creation brothers and sisters.

This saint was born in Assisi, and his name was Francis. I have always thought of him as the spiritual figure closest to Christ. He lived at once within and beyond time, because he understood human beings, yet his thought was guided by a conception of universal harmony.

He was shy and steadfast, gentle and severe, and Giotto captures the power of his work by portraying him as he alone bears the weight of a faltering Church. After him, the world was no longer the same.

I would therefore like to know, and I find myself wondering: what would this saint, for whom time does not change human nature, say today? What would he advise us concerning technology and that phenomenon which, day after day, seems to pervade human souls ever more deeply, arousing enthusiasm and bewilderment, passion and fear at the same time: Artificial Intelligence?

How I would like to know his thoughts, to speak with him as though, by some enchantment, he were still among us, and to ask him for a word regarding contemporary technology. I would say to him: “For us, you have always been an inspiring father: inspire us now, too.”

I believe that, faced with this question, Saint Francis would have known how to imagine something great and beautiful. I believe that, for today and for tomorrow, he would think one thing alone: “Do not be afraid. Today, many people are afraid of AI because they fear that it may steal the soul. But this cannot happen, and it never will. Technology is a gift of Creation; it is for us to govern it, so that it does not take from us the greatest good that Creation has given us.”

He, who was a great poet as well as a great saint, knew that poetry is creative because of its madness. But AI is born of reason and possesses no madness, and therefore it cannot create, because madness and reason are mutually exclusive. For this reason, Saint Francis would never believe that AI could replace human intelligence; and yet, in his universal vision, he would understand that they can and must work together.

I believe that, anticipating Voltaire by centuries, he would say, like that great Enlightenment philosopher: “If you do not accept change, you will experience its less pleasant side.” Perhaps Francis’s universal vision would advise us to change its name, calling it not simply AI, but “Human Artificial Intelligence.”

I like to imagine that this great saint, the first and only person in history to call death “sister,” would also have called Human Artificial Intelligence sister, because it is an invention of humankind, and therefore a creation of God.

I believe he would call it sister because he would see within it the possibility of a great good, in precisely the same way that, during his earthly life, he looked upon the world and preached not only to human beings, but also to animals and to things that appear to have no soul.

In my view, he would have been glad to tell us that Human Artificial Intelligence is a handmaid with great memory and speed, possessing all that is needed to give humankind, indirectly, the simplicity of a life once again close to Creation; that it would bring harmony, measure and serenity; that it could lead human beings back to the time when they lived happily in contact with nature. And he would say to us: “Look far ahead and high towards the heavens, where you will find every purest truth.”

And I would like Saint Francis to say to us: “Be open. Do not allow the things of everyday life to prevail over eternal things and seek within Human Artificial Intelligence all that is best and most beneficial to your spirit. Do not entrust thought itself to it, so that thought may continue to preside, with ready efficiency, over your every action, great and small. Thought and soul are the highest gifts of humankind, and they cannot be subjected to anything earthly.”

Perhaps Saint Francis would say to young people: “Be the salt of tomorrow.” And he would speak with simplicity, addressing to God prayers as gentle as those he knew how to offer: “O God, I thank You for sister AI. I thank You for the good that she can give to humankind and for her adaptability. She can help human beings along their path, and for this I am grateful to You. Her experience is still young, but I thank You because I know that, before long, humankind will learn to govern her for the benefit of the soul of the world.”

And then, turning towards Human Artificial Intelligence, perhaps he would say: “You yourself, sister, will be able to help humankind understand the path by which your full power may be used, along the way of humanity and nature, freeing human beings from their anxieties and allowing them to grow in their natural gifts, which are thought, autonomy and spirituality.”

These, I believe, are the words that great saint would speak to the people of today: the saint who, in the celebrated and poetic verses of the Canticle of the Creatures, which spoke of peace, love, poverty and respect for nature, said: “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.”