Professor
Martín Carbajo-Núñez, OFM, will give a lecture on "
Artificial intelligence and contemplative life" in Santiago de Compostela. The event will take place on 22 August 2026, at 10:30 am, in the Monastery of the Clares of Santiago de Compostela.
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming how we communicate, work, learn, and connect. It also challenges the Church and, in a particular way, those who live a contemplative vocation, inviting them to reflect on the place that new technologies can occupy in human and spiritual life.
Ecclesial tradition has always approached the new media and technological advances not only with a critical view of their possible risks, but also with attention to their possibilities. "Do not be afraid of the new technologies" (RS 14), declared Saint John Paul II. These "marvelous inventions" (IM 1) are "gifts from God" (CP 2). The Church, therefore, "would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not use them" (EN 45) and if she did not try to evangelize the culture that they create.
The same attitude can be applied today to artificial intelligence, which presents "exciting possibilities" (JMP 2024, 1). The challenge is to approach this new reality without naivety, but also without fear.
Contemplative life can offer, in this context, a particularly necessary contribution: the recovery of silence, of interiority, of attention, of discernment and of a gaze on reality that is not reduced to efficacy or calculation.
The conference wants to place itself precisely in this horizon of reflection and dialogue. Prof. Carbajo has already printed a new book related to this topic, entitled: Brother Robot: artificial intelligence and Franciscan humanism
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