Friar Paolo Benanti wears the plain brown robes of his medieval Franciscan order as he pursues one of the most pressing issues in contemporary times: how to govern artificial intelligence so that it enriches — and doesn’t exploit — people’s lives. Benanti is the Vatican’s go-to person on the technology and he has the ear of Pope Francis as well as some of Silicon Valley’s top engineers and executives.

With a background in engineering, a doctorate in moral theology and a passion for what he calls the “ethics of technology,” the 50-year-old Italian priest is on an urgent mission that he shares with Francis, who, in his annual peace message for 2024, pushed for an international treaty to ensure the ethical use of AI technology.