{"id":593305,"date":"2026-04-19T08:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/593305\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:24:13","slug":"texas-brothers-launch-catholic-ai-chatbot-with-parental-controls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/593305\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas brothers launch Catholic AI chatbot with parental controls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Two brothers from Texas are bridging the gap between the Bible and artificial intelligence (AI), creating a new platform designed to give families a safe alternative to Silicon Valley\u2019s secular chatbots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Peter and Thomas Cooney created Acutis AI, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/faith-values\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">faith-based AI chatbot<\/a> grounded in 2,000 years of Catholic teaching. The pair said the idea arose when they began questioning the source of modern chatbots\u2019 moral frameworks, turning to their Catholic faith and its centuries of scholarly work on ethics as the answer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we were using a lot of these mainstream platforms, we really realized that you couldn&#8217;t trace the moral framework back to what it really was,&#8221; Thomas Cooney said Saturday on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/shows\/fox-friends-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fox &amp; Friends Weekend.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Growing up in a Catholic family, we kind of just realized that the best place to get [morals] is not from some tech CEO or even some ethics team,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ai-risks-kids-workers-rising-faster-than-regulation-new-group-warns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">AI RISKS TO KIDS, WORKERS RISING FASTER THAN REGULATION, NEW GROUP WARNS<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/acutis-ai-faith-religion-fox-news.jpeg\" alt=\"Peter and Thomas Cooney appear on 'Fox &amp; Friends Weekend' discussing their faith-based AI chatbot.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Brothers Peter and Thomas Cooney appeared on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends Weekend&#8221; to discuss their new faith-based artificial intelligence chatbot, Acutis AI. (Screenshot\/&#8221;Fox &amp; Friends Weekend&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Acutis AI is named after the first millennial saint, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/religion\/roman-catholic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Blessed Carlo Acutis<\/a>, who died at age 15. He was nicknamed &#8220;God\u2019s Influencer&#8221; for his work creating a website to document Eucharistic miracles.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Cooney said the goal is to ensure families have a safe place in the AI sphere to receive moral responses and advice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The biggest danger is for kids and teenagers who can become addicted to these big platforms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/tech\/artificial-intelligence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">these AI chatbots<\/a>. And they\u2019re feeding them incorrect information,&#8221; Peter said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/faith-deficit-artificial-intelligence-should-alarm-every-american\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">THE FAITH DEFICIT IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SHOULD ALARM EVERY AMERICAN<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/blessed-carlo-acutis-faith-fox-news.jpeg\" alt=\"Tapestry of Carlo Acutis displayed on St. Peter\u2019s Basilica during canonization ceremony.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>A tapestry depicting Carlo Acutis hung from the balcony of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica during a canonization ceremony led by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, 2025, in Vatican City. (Franco Origlia\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Acutis AI includes several features for parents designed to ensure their children&#8217;s safety online. The platform offers tools like time limits, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/lifestyle\/parenting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">parental monitoring<\/a> and restricted use during user-designated homework hours.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We put parental controls, so parents can see exactly what their kids are saying. They can get alerted if their kids ask about dangerous topics,&#8221; Peter said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll make sure that it&#8217;s always answering through Catholic perspectives, no matter what the question is about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/60-minutes-accused-using-left-leaning-cardinals-bait-trump-feud-vatican\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8217;60 MINUTES&#8217; ACCUSED OF USING LEFT-LEANING CARDINALS TO BAIT TRUMP INTO FEUD WITH VATICAN<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/teen-parent-using-phone-ai-fox-news.jpeg\" alt=\"Mother and daughter sit on couch looking at smartphone together\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>A mother and her daughter using a smartphone together. (MStudioImages\/iStock)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The website also notes that when young people ask difficult questions, the AI is trained to respond with moral grounding rather than trying to keep the user &#8220;addicted&#8221; to the chat.<\/p>\n<p>The creation of Acutis AI comes as many members of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/opinion\/culture-opinion\/gen-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gen Z<\/a> find their way back to religion. A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/poll-finds-sharp-rise-young-men-calling-religion-very-important\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">42% of men under 30<\/a> said religion is &#8220;very important&#8221; to them, a 14% increase from 2023.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Madison is a writer for Fox News Digital on the Flash team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Two brothers from Texas are bridging the gap between the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,133310,258341,38592,153,13952,152896,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-593305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-faith-values","12":"tag-fox-news-flash","13":"tag-fox-news-media","14":"tag-gen-z","15":"tag-parents","16":"tag-roman-catholic","17":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}