Franciscans can be just as scholarly as Dominicans, but the distinctive mark of our tradition is contemplation. It is meant to teach us to see the goodness God intended in all things. It’s obvious when we stand in a beautiful valley, in a meadow, surrounded by flowers and mountaintops. We can admire what God has created. What if we tried to look at what modern science has made possible with the same sense of awe and wonder?

Indeed, it was a Dominican friend who recently reminded me of the need for contemplation when I bemoaned that Dominicans were doing so much more work in philosophy than we do. We need to emphasize also our own call to contemplation, and if this leads to a drop in the number of papers we publish, so be it. Maybe our contributions can become more influential in changing the hearts of people.

It is entirely legitimate to emphasize the power granted to us by science, but a contemplative attitude can provide balance. When power alone is emphasized, the next question is usually who controls it and how it is used. Indeed, this is a major theme in Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas, which addresses AI.

But the Holy Father also speaks of disarming AI, or of seeing it not primarily as a means of power and control. Contemplation, or resting in God’s goodness in various contexts, seems like a way to get there.

Of course, we cannot simply gaze upon a computer screen as upon a landscape, let alone at the face of Christ, as St. Clare famously recommends in her letter to St. Agnes of Prague. But we cannot gaze upon the face of Christ directly, either. We look through what we see to gaze upon Christ in the world that was made through him and for him.

I keep being impressed by how easily Large Language Models make it to get answers to simple questions. Of course, I know better than to overlook the errors. Indeed, the errors teach me to pay closer attention to what I get. But sometimes I stop and simply admire that this is possible. Knowledge has become so much more readily available to all who seek it. Surely this is something to contemplate, and to ask how this can draw us closer to God.

When I look at the results I get from Large Language Models in this way, the abuses stand out like a sore thumb. I can tell when the machine wants to nudge my questioning with an ideology baked into it. It’s important to note this. As Pope Leo reminds us, no technology, as enacted by humans, is value-neutral. The values of the makers always end up in the product.

But contemplation helps us distinguish what is good, what is of God, what is original, meaningful, and free of deceit. With this skill acquired, discerning use of technology becomes possible, and we can use it as it is meant to be used.