The Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, will be supplementing its fundraising activities with an AI tool meant in part to solicit donations from local Catholics in what the diocese is billing as the "world's first virtual engagement officer."
The diocese announced the rollout of "Maria" this month. It describes the tool as a means of "thoughtfully exploring how new technologies can support more attentive listening, more consistent communication, and more personal engagement with those we serve."
Bishop Frank Caggiano says on the program's website that the digital tool will "help us discern how technology may support deeper connection and accompaniment."
"Maria will help us learn how digital tools can deepen our listening and foster more personal responses, while always keeping human relationships at the heart of the Church's mission," he said.
Ethical safeguards, 'huge potential'
On the April 15 edition of his weekly podcast "Let Me Be Frank," Caggiano jokingly described himself as "technologically a Neanderthal," but he expressed excitement that the tool could be used "not just to raise money but to evangelize."
Speaking on the podcast to diocesan chancellor Deacon Patrick Toole, who spent years as an executive with the technology giant IBM, Caggiano asked if an AI agent can "ever get to the point where it could resist human control."
Toole acknowledged that such a scenario was "possible," though he noted that AI companies institute "huge safeguards" to ensure that AI personalities are trained properly.
The deacon said that the diocesan chancery has been holding discussions about "how to use artificial intelligence for the good of the mission" and that diocesan fundraising "seemed like a good opportunity to try it in an area where we don't have the resources."
"My primary motivation was that we're doing so many really exciting things and it's hard to get the message out," he said.
Emily Groccia, a vice president at the tech company Givzey, which helped design Maria, said on the podcast that the program was rolled out to 1,000 donors in late March.
She said part of the tool's programming will be to "graduate" donors to actual human workers under some circumstances, such as when someone wants to significantly upgrade a donation, or if they raise intimate personal questions better addressed by a fellow human being.
"We are very cautious on allowing our [AI] to engage in lines of conversation that are outside of those traditional fundraising conversations," she said.
The bishop said that AI fundraising represents "huge potential" for the nearly 200 dioceses in the United States. But he stressed the need for "guidelines" to ensure that AI agents do not take the place of human beings.
"Just off the top of my head, if someone reveals a death, I would not want the assistant to respond at all," he said. "I want a human person to respond. ... Because again, as a Church, we're a unique reality."
Diocesan spokeswoman Marie Oates shared with EWTN News several examples of Maria's interactions with local Catholics. In one, a parishioner expresses interest in volunteering with immigrants, for which Maria was able to provide information on local Catholic Charities immigration services.
In another, a mother asks Maria for opportunities to get involved in diocesan programs with "other moms like me." Maria offers to connect the mother to parish programs with mothers' groups and family ministries.
Oates said both interactions "highlight our goal for the program," which she said focuses on "using AI [not] as a way to replace human relationships but as a tool to help us connect more personally."
"[We want to use] AI to bridge the gaps in our ability as a Church to communicate directly with everyone, with the goal of fostering more personal and human connection and interaction, so that we as humans can better accompany each other," she said.
On the bishop's podcast, meanwhile, Toole said that Catholics "have the opportunity to bear great fruit" with AI technology "as long as we align it to the One and make sure we stay true to that with Christ at the center."
Caggiano described AI innovation as representing "an epochal shift in human life" comparable to the development of the printing press.
"There's no one on Earth alive — even these great architects of [AI] — who really know where all of this will go," he said. "We need to answer the question, where should it go?"
