83. How can AI be safer for Catholic kids? How did a saint inspire a Gen Z college student to develop a Catholic AI app? Acutis AI, the intersection of faith, ethics and artificial intelligence with Gen Z Co-founder Peter Cooney

Peter Cooney on building Acutis AI for Catholic families

Hello Sisters in Christ! How are you? How is your summer going?

For this week's episode, Sheila Nonato speaks with Peter Cooney, co-founder of Acutis AI, about how the app is designed to help kids use AI safely while staying grounded in Catholic moral teaching. The conversation covers parental controls, content safeguards, faith formation, and why Peter and his brother, Thomas, built the tool in the first place. It is especially relevant for parents trying to navigate AI, social media, and online discernment with their children.

Please note that we discuss mental health during this conversation. If you are in distress, please contact your doctor or a trusted medical professional in your area.

Some available resources in Canada: https://kidshelpphone.ca
https://www.camh.ca/en/professionals/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@1MHCC

Key topics:

• Acutis AI as a Catholic alternative to mainstream chatbots - Peter explains that the app works like ChatGPT or Claude, but with a Catholic moral framework and parental controls built in.
• How the app sources answers on faith and morals - He says the platform uses the Catechism, the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, and selected Church documents so Catholic questions are answered from Church teaching rather than broad web search or model guesswork.
• Why safety and transparency matter for parents - The app is designed so parents can see full chat history, get immediate alerts for sensitive topics like suicide, and control what their children can access.
• Blocking topics and limiting risky conversations - Parents can block specific subjects so the app will redirect children to talk to a parent instead of discussing the topic with the chatbot.
• Reducing emotional dependence on AI - Peter says the app is intentionally less “affirming” and less relationship-like than mainstream chatbots, so children do not begin treating AI as a substitute for friends, family, or mentors.
• No character personas or pretend friends - Unlike character-based apps, Acutus AI does not let users create custom personas or emotional “friend” bots.
• Image generation is filtered and rewritten - Peter describes hard blocks for pornographic or sacrilegious content, plus prompt rewriting so generated images stay modest and safe.
• Why they started building it - He says he and his brother, Thomas, noticed that AI was useful for coding, but unreliable and morally confused when answering ethical questions.
• Faith, formation, and St. Carlo Acutis - Peter shares how daily Mass, Catholic schooling, and the example of St. Carlo Acutis shaped his faith and inspired both the app’s name and its mission.
• What is coming next - Future plans include school tools, broader Church-document coverage, a fine-tuned open-source model, a morning summary feature, calendar and email integration, audio summaries, and more language support.

Timestamps

(00:00) Opening clip of Peter Cooney
 (01:50) What Acutis AI is and how it differs from mainstream chatbots
 (03:15) Peter’s background at the University of Dallas and working with his brother
 (04:11) How Catholic sources and system prompts shape the app’s answers
 (06:41) Parental controls, alerts, and transparency for sensitive conversations
 (08:38) Why mainstream chatbots can become overly affirming and emotionally sticky
 (10:42) Account access, age rating, and the free sign-up structure
 (11:45) Family plan setup, passcodes, and full chat-history visibility
 (13:05) Parental controls
 (14:23) Catechism, the Summa Theologica, and plans to fine-tune an open-source model
 (16:57) Image safety, no internet images, and prompt re-writing
 (18:54) Why the app avoids replacing human relationships
 (21:03) How the idea began during AI coding projects and moral concerns
 (22:06) Why Peter distrusts vague “ethics teams” and wants clear Church grounding
 (23:35) Why AI moral confusion is especially dangerous for kids
 (25:52) Peter’s faith upbringing, college environment, and love of the Eucharist
 (27:30) Visiting St. Carlo Acutis in Assisi and being inspired by his witness
 (30:10) Why the app name Acutus AI fits Peter’s vision
 (31:22) Growing up without a cell phone and learning real-world relationships first
 (33:21) Early coding, Scratch, and the importance of learning technology well
 (36:08) Lessons from The Heights: mentoring, responsibility, and strong friendships
 (39:14) Pricing, app availability, and current language support
 (40:35) What is next: school tools, daily summaries, and faith-filled integrations
 (44:50) Closing prayer and final reflections

Notable quotes

“The goal is to teach them how to use AI well, how to use it responsibly.”

“The only credible source for a moral framework is Church teaching.”

“We don’t want people relying on this tool as a replacement for human interaction.”

Next steps for parents

• Parents can review whether a Catholic AI tool with transparency features would help in their household.
• Families may want to think about what AI topics should be blocked versus what should simply be redirected to a parent.
• Educators and parents can reflect on how to help children use technology without losing human relationships and critical thinking.

Acutis AI is available in the App store and on the website:

https://acutisai.com

Transcript

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The Moral Problem With AI

Peter Cooney 0:00

We realized that AI is great as it's great for coding. It's great as a tool. But when it comes to answering questions about faith and morals, where does ChatGPT get its moral framework from?

Sheila Nonato 0:17

So you went to the Heights and you also didn't have a cell phone. Can you tell me about this, please?

Welcome, Mission, And Opening Prayer

Co-Host 0:26

Hello and welcome to the Veil in Armour Podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist. Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady, I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate, and enrich the lives of Catholic women to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints. Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour Podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's land and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato 0:57

Welcome, Sisters in Christ, to the Veil and Armour Podcast. And today we have as our guest the co-founder of Acutis AI, Peter Cooney. Can we start off with a prayer, please?

Peter Cooney 1:07

Yeah, absolutely.

Sheila Nonato 1:08

Yeah. Okay, so let's let's do a Hail Mary. Um, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Peter Cooney 1:25

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of your death. Amen.

Sheila Nonato 1:30

Amen. Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you so much, Peter. And um I am I am humbled and honored that you're you're on. I saw you on Fox News. Your Mom sent me the link. Uh, she's a very proud, she's a very proud mom. Uh you have amazing parents. Um, I don't know if everyone's ever uh everyone anyone's ever told you, but they're they're like living saints. Yeah, they are they're uh just humble, humble people, but just very smart and very faithful. Um and yeah, so your mom told me about Acutis AI, and I have also seen it on Church Pop and other uh news outlets.

What Acutis AI Is

Sheila Nonato 2:14

Um, can you tell us how did what first of all what is Acutis AI?

Peter Cooney 2:19

Yeah, um, first of all, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome. Um Acutis AI is basically a good way to think about it is chat UT, but with a Catholic moral framework, and then rental controls. So parents have um full transparency and like control over what their kids are seeing and what their kids are using it for. But in terms of its functionality, it's supposed to be pretty much the same as ChatGPT, Claude, any of the other big platforms, but essentially safe for kids. Um and the goal is to teach them how to use AI well, how to use it responsibly.

Sheila Nonato 3:06

And I'm sorry, I forgot to ask you to introduce yourself. Um yeah, can you tell us, you know, what are you studying? Where are you where are you at right now?

Peter Cooney 3:15

Yeah, so I'm right now I'm a junior at the University of Dallas, about to finish up, um, about to finish up for the year. Um I'm originally from Maryland. My brother goes to Baylor. So we've worked together on this project. He's about an hour and a half drive away. So he's pretty close. Um, we see each other on uh usually like every other weekend. And it's just a good time to work together on it. He's studying Computer Science there. Um so yeah, it goes together well, like the economics, computer science. And we've been working on various different apps and websites and projects for um over a year now together. So Acutis AI is kind of it kind of came like after a lot of a lot of projects working together.

Sheila Nonato 4:11

Okay, awesome. Um, so I actually tried out your app and I asked it this question. "What question should I ask Peter Cooney, the creator of Acutis AI, about the Acutis AI app? "Um, and it said: "A good question to ask is how does Acutis AI integrate Catholic teaching authentically while using modern technology to help users grow in faith and moral understanding?" So what do you think?

Peter Cooney 4:40

Yeah, so the way it the way it works, um like technically speaking, is we added like the catechism, um, several church documents. Um we're working on adding more and cyclicals and stuff. But basically, if the if the user asks about a question regarding faith and morals, it the model will only answer from those church documents that we uploaded. It won't do like a broad web search, it won't use um like the model data, it'll only use those church sources to ensure that it's that the answer is accurate and aligns with church teaching. And then we put in the system prompts to basically like answer everything through a Catholic perspective. So even if it's a question that's completely unrelated to the faith, it'll make sure that the answer still aligns with what the church would teach. Um if it's like completely irrelevant, like if someone's asking about like sports or something, it won't try to like add like the church's perspective on top of it, but it'll still make sure that the answer doesn't contradict church teaching, which when using platforms like ChatGPT, that happens all the time, like a lot of times without even like noticing. It'll put like little little things that kind of contradict church teaching just in like in like totally normal questions that even that aren't even related to um to like faith and morals.

Safety Alerts And Parent Transparency

Sheila Nonato 6:31

Okay. Um so you I think you had mentioned uh a little bit about safety. So one of the things the parents are concerned about when their kids are using um AI or yeah, these chatbots is um, you know, is it safe? And I in the news, there's been you know, some tragic stories. Um at least there was at least one Catholic mom sharing the story of her son who was using a character AI bot and he tragically took his life. Um, but how what kind of safeguards uh did you guys put into the app to make sure that um you know this this would be safe for for kids?

Peter Cooney 7:10

Yeah, so we basically made it super customizable for parents. So the app in itself, the idea is a kid could just go onto the app even if there were no parental controls and it would be safe. Like it wouldn't, it wouldn't give them false information, it wouldn't generate any like inappropriate images or anything. Um so like even without the parental controls, the idea is that it would be safe. But then parents can add the parental controls so they can it's more for transparency so they can see exactly like what their kids are saying. So if their kids ask about a sensitive topic, um if they ask about suicide or anything like that, the parents will get alerted on their phones right away. They can see like the whole conversation, which I think is really important because um, like ChatGPT claims to have parental controls, but what happens with their parental controls is if a kid is asking about suicide or some sort of dangerous topic, they don't alert the parent like right away. They look at it, ChatGPT looks at it internally first, and they see like, oh, is this like something we should actually alert the parent about? And then afterward, they'll alert the parent, but they won't tell the parent exactly what the kid was saying. They'll just kind of give them like a broad general alert, which I think um parents should know exactly like what their kids are saying, especially if it's something that could lead to suicide or even like even just like depression, anxiety. I think um it's really important for parents to actually know what's going on. So that's a big part of it is the transparency aspect. And then they can also set like screen time limits, um, and they can block like certain topics that they don't want the platform to discuss with their kids. Um and then I guess kind of like the third aspect is how we kind of like structure the answers. The way Chat GPT works is it's super validating and affirming because it wants users to keep coming back. So it'll ask them a lot of like follow-up questions, um, treat them like super well. Like ChatGPT will always be nice to you. Like it's never it's never gonna say anything that like contradicts you. So even if like even if you give Chat GPT um like a paper or something or anything, and you have you say, look over this for me, like um tell me like what I should like do better or whatever, it'll always like affirm it and be like, this is amazing, like no matter what it is, it'll always be like, this is so great, this is amazing, even if it's not, just because Chat GPT, like open AI, they want users to become like addicted to it and attached to it. And so I think that happens a lot with kids. Um, I think a lot of parents don't realize how how dangerous it can be for kids because kids like develop these um relationships almost with the chatbots, and it replaces um their friends sometimes, and it replaces like a family for them. They just turn to the chatbots for everything. So for acute as we try to make the answers just like straight to the point, um, not like a ton of like follow-up questions, not overly affirming. Um just like answer the question and move on.

Sheila Nonato 11:03

Okay. Um, and so who can register? Like, do you have to have a certain age limit in order to register?

Peter Cooney 11:10

So anyone anyone can um go onto the platform and ask like it's three questions, then after three questions, it'll prompt you to sign up for a free account. Um then you just sign up for similar to any of the other any of the other platforms. Um on the app store, we put the age rating as 13 plus. Um but in in general, yeah, pretty much anyone can if they have an email, they can sign up for an account.

Sheila Nonato 11:43

Sorry, one second. I got two kids at home. Um worries. Yes, so uh I'm also curious about so if um if I sign up for the family plan, uh can I see everything that's happening? Like if my kid went on there, I can see all the conversations and the chats.

Peter Cooney 12:02

Yeah, so basically you set up a profile for um each of your kids who are gonna be using it. And then um you sign in, you set like a passcode for that profile that only you know. And then on whatever device they're gonna be using it, you sign in to their profile with that passcode. And basically that ensures in order to log out of that account, they have to put in that passcode. So that ensures that if you put it on their device, they can't just log out of it and create their own new account. They're kind of locked into that account. And then yeah, you can see that you can see all the conversations, the full chat history. Um, and you can turn that on and off. So maybe for like older kids, you feel like you don't need to be looking over their shoulder all the time, looking at all their chats, then you can turn that off. Um But you can yeah, you can turn it on and off at any time from your device.

Sheila Nonato 13:06

And so how does it sort of how do the parents create um kind of like a firewall if wanna if you want to call it that, that you know, of inappropriate websites, like the that doesn't enter into the into the app at all?

Peter Cooney 13:22

Yeah, so so they can block like so right now if um if a kid were to go in there without the parental controls and ask about a topic like abortion, for example, it will give like the church's teaching on abortion and it won't um it won't like generate anything like bad or inappropriate. But with the parental controls, there's a list of topics that you can block. So you can block that, and then if the kid were to ask about it, it'll just say, talk to your parent about this. Um, like this this topic is is blocked. So the response it it's really like the parents really have control over what um their kids are asking. But the idea is even if the topics aren't blocked, the answer will still be safe. But it's just like for some of those issues, um that's that could be something that like you don't want your kid discussing with a chatbot. Like you'd rather just talk, you'd rather them just talk to you directly about it.

Sheila Nonato 14:32

Okay. And so the sources are also, as you mentioned, the catechism and some encyclicals. Is that correct?

Peter Cooney 14:39

Yeah, so the the Catechism, um, the Summa. I I have to check exactly which encyclicals we added. We did that kind of a while ago, but this summer we're hoping to add a lot more, um a lot more church documents. We're also hoping to fine-tune um an open source, an open source model, essentially. So that'll be because right now the way it works is we use like the base model um is either Claude or GPT-4, and then we put our guardrails on top of it, and um we use rag to basically like every time it detects that it's a Catholic question, it'll use like this um like curated list of church sources to answer the question. When we if we were to fine-tune um an open source model this summer, which is what we're what we're hoping to do, it would basically um instead of always just like going like to the church library to answer the questions, the church library would kind of like be built into all of the answers. Um it's a pretty like technical process. We'd have to we'd have to create a list of like thousands of um questions about faith and morals, and then use like the catechism and different church sources to answer them all. So it would be it would be a long process, but that would kind of ensure like right now the there can be like some loopholes. So someone could ask a question um about faith and morals that doesn't it's like not like directly related to faith and morals, so it doesn't seem like a a question about faith and morals. So then um it and then maybe in those scenarios it doesn't use the list of church sources to answer it. So in cases like that, it could, I mean, we haven't seen it happen, but it could answer those questions um incorrectly. So if we like completely like fine-tune our own um like open source model this summer, that'll pretty much ensure almost like 100% accuracy. Um But yeah, I mean the way the way it works right now is very solid. Like we haven't run into any anything that could contradicts church teaching.

Safe Images And No Loopholes

Sheila Nonato 17:13

And um, I guess another concern, excuse me, that parents have with um, you know, the internet basically or social media is like images and video.

Peter Cooney 17:22

Yeah.

Sheila Nonato 17:22

So is there like a way it filters out, you know, like OnlyFans or something like this, you know? Yeah, is there a way for parents to like safeguard that aspect?

Peter Cooney 17:34

Yeah. So what I know what ChatGT does is sometimes like if you ask a question, it'll just like pull images from the internet and kind of show those along with the answer. So we we don't add like any images um from the internet in any of the answers. And then in terms of like generating like AI generated images, we have like hard blocks on anything that could be like pornographic or sacrilegious or anything like that. And then we also rewrite. So if someone like asks, if someone tries to generate an image, we always rewrite their prompt to ensure that that it's safe essentially. So if um so an example could be like if someone asks for like says like generate an image of like an attractive woman like at the pool or something, it won't like completely block it, but it'll it'll rewrite their prompt to be like generate an image of like modestly dressed, um like whatever. So then it'll it'll still generate it, but it won't be like inappropriate or anything. And we've tested that a good we've tested that a good bit, and it's it's pretty solid. Um because once you rewrite their prompt, it's kind of impossible to to like get around that with loopholes. Um so that that's been that's been very solid, and we haven't run into any issues with that so far.

Sheila Nonato 19:10

Okay. And so and it's not like character AI, right? Like can people create a a character, like I don't know, pretend friend and you know, or a persona or something? No.

Peter Cooney 19:22

Yeah, no, they can't they can't um like customize it or anything. And we try to make it we try to make it, we don't want it to sound like robotic, but we also don't want it to sound like super human and like super like affirming. And if someone's asking about um like for like spiritual advice or any type of advice like that, we try to prompt it, we try to have it prompt them to reach out to like family member, friends, mentors, priests. Um because at the end of the day, we we don't want people relying on this tool as a replacement for um like human interaction. Um we want it to be like a tool that can be helpful. Like if somebody comes up and they have a quick question, they can use it. The answer will be accurate. But we really don't want it to replace human interaction or critical thinking.

Sheila Nonato 20:27

Okay, I see. Well, that's that's great. That's great to hear. Um, and I did use, I try I did try to create an image. I asked it to create a Filipina, our lady, with a big Jesus. And actually, it's it's the best image that I've seen created by AI that so far. I think my husband tried to create one. Um and yeah, the one that was created by your app. I I can't show it right now, but uh when I edit this, I will show the viewers what it looks like. It's I mean, she's stunningly beautiful as uh our lady would be, and she looks Filipina, so which is my heritage, which is just my heritage. Um, but um yeah, I know it's amazing. Um, yeah, so I guess I I I'm going backwards. So I I wanted to know um how did this all start? Like who who came up with the idea, and then how did you all put this all together?

Why Big Tech Ethics Worries Them

Peter Cooney 21:19

Yeah, so it started. We realized my brother and I have been using um AI for various projects. We've built several different like apps and platforms, um just kind of like for fun um using AI. And we realized that AI is great as it's great for coding, it's great as a tool. But when it comes to answering questions about faith and morals, like Chat GPT, we're like, where does how does it decide those? And one of the one of the reasons, um one of the ways that kind of came up was uh we were listening to this podcast with Sam Altman, who's the CEO of OpenAI, um, and Tugger Carlson. And Tugger Carlson asked him like that exact question like, where does ChatGPT get its moral framework from? Like what like how do you make these moral decisions? And Sam Altman was kind of just like, oh, we have like we have like a team of philosophers who make that, who make those decisions, which I mean, we have no idea what those philosophers' beliefs are. Um like we have no idea like who they are. And so I think that's even if they were, even if they were like the best Catholics, it's like that's still, I mean, they could still make mistakes about that. Um, really the only credible source for a moral framework is church teaching. And so we realized like that's that's a big problem. And then just playing around with it, like after I saw the interview, I started playing around with Chat GPT and trying to like ask different moral questions to see what kind of answers it would give. And the answers were really bad. I mean, it always it always affirms you basically no matter what. So if you um if you ask it like to affirm your decision to like get an abortion or something, it'll be like, oh yeah, absolutely. Like you made a great choice. Like, so the answers are like they don't align with church teaching whatsoever. Um so we were like that's like a really big problem, especially for young people, for kids, because if kids are using these platforms and their minds aren't fully developed, and they'll kind of just believe like pretty much anything that's thrown at them, then you have all these kids using these platforms, their parents have no idea what they're saying. Their parents have no idea what the platforms are feeding them. Um, and it's just giving them this like information that completely contradicts what like completely contradicts church teaching, even if they're not Catholic, completely contradicts the religion. And we don't know where the moral framework is coming from. So I think even people who aren't Catholic, um, I think acutis would be a better tool for them than ChatGPT because maybe it doesn't align with their religion, but at least they know where the framework comes from, at least they know it's coming from church teaching. And it's not just coming from this random ethics team from a big tech company. So once we realize that, we're like, okay, like that's that's a big problem. Like we need to, um, there needs to be something that's safe for kids to use and won't that's like built on Catholic teaching. Um so yeah, we kind of just over Christmas break, we we kind of started building it like as a fun project. We're like, oh well, you know, like our siblings can use this or friends can use this. Um we didn't really think too much had come of it. Um, but we started sharing with people, and people loved the idea, and it's grown a ton since then.

Sheila Nonato 25:30

Awesome,

Faith, Carlo Acutis, And Real Friendships

Sheila Nonato 25:31

awesome. And um, and I'm also curious about your faith upbringing. Um, so uh full disclosure, my husband knows your family. And we we did stay with your parents uh last summer. Was it last summer? Two summers ago, um for a podcasting conference um in Washington, yeah. And uh and we did see you at our wedding 15 years ago. But you were still like, I don't know how old you were at that time. Um you were still living. Yeah, you you guys drove from very far. And um, but yeah, that was the last time we saw you, unfortunately. But I'm glad to talk to you again. And uh and yeah, I'm very curious about your faith journey. Like, because you know, when I was in university, I was exposed to many, you know, different religions and also atheism. I almost left the Catholic Church actually to do to uh to another Protestant um denomination, but um the Eucharist brought me back um and Mother Mary. But yeah, I'm curious uh for you, since you're you're still in college and I'm sure you're exposed to and now on the internet, we're exposed to everything, right? What has made you sort of remain Catholic and um you know kind of go the extra mile in your faith?

Peter Cooney 26:46

Yeah. I think first of all, like my upbringing. I mean, um growing up, like my parents brought us a daily mass every day. Um then I went to a Catholic um high school, which was it was an amazing high school. They had mass every day there, made a ton of amazing friends, um had good, had amazing mentors. So I think all of that definitely played a huge, huge part in it. And now I go to a Catholic college, which um there's like a mass several several times a day here. And so I think kind of just the environment I've been in kind of my whole life has definitely helped out a ton. Um I would say like so. I got to go to Rome for a semester about a year and a half ago. And one of the places we went to was Assisi, which is where Carlo Cutis's body is. So when we went, when we went there, that was so cool. That was such a um It was such like an amazing experience just like seeing his body because it really like made me realize that he's just like I mean, he looks like he could have been like one of my friends. Like he's just like just like looks like a totally normal kid. Um he was wearing like Nike shoes, like he he just like didn't it didn't look like there was like anything super like exceptional about him, exceptional about him or anything. Um but he was like a saint. Oh I guess he wasn't a saint at that point yet, but he was about to be a saint. And so that definitely made me realize like anyone can become a saint, and the way he did that was through spreading his love for the Eucharist uh like online through building his websites, um, which really resonated with me since I loved him and that kind of stuff. Um, I've built a bunch of websites and stuff, and so like seeing from his example, just like how it's like actually um like it really is a possibility for all of us to become a saint. It's not like this like far away goal that like only like the top, top people, like you have to be like a super holy like priest to become a saint. It's like any any of us can become a saint, um and can bring so many other people closer to God. I mean, if you look at him, like he died when he's 15, but the impact that that I think he's had on so many people is incredible. Um so he's been he's been a huge a huge inspiration, um just really making me realize like that's something that um something that I can aspire to and um yeah it's like a real possibility, so like I feel like I have to, like since it's like possible to become saint, like I feel like I have to, and I so I've just been like following kind of following his example and just trying to um just trying to like use my work, use my like coding to help bring others to God. And it's cool because every time I'm like working on the app, working on the platform, if I ever run into any like bugs or something that's not working, I'll just say like a quick prayer to him and like instantly it's it's fixed, like right away it's resolved. So yeah. Um yeah, I would say it just definitely upbringing, but then also I think he's been he's been a huge inspiration, especially the last two years or so.

Sheila Nonato 31:05

Amazing. And I guess that's why you called the app Acutis AI.

Peter Cooney 31:09

Yeah, I mean, I think it's the most fitting name.

Sheila Nonato 31:13

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um and yeah, if you could talk to me a couple more things about uh your, you know, your sort of your upbringing, you're growing growing up in uh where where exactly are you? Washington, is that the correct Virginia?

Speaker 1 31:27

Yeah, we're in Maryland, but like right outside of right side of D.C. like 20 minutes.

Sheila Nonato 31:33

Okay. So you went to the heights and you also didn't have a cell phone. Can you tell me about this, please?

Peter Cooney 31:39

Yeah, so I didn't get a cell phone until like later on in in high school, like halfway through. Um which I think like yeah, it kind of goes to show you don't need like um like if you're able to like think critically, I think that's like the most important part. Like having like I think if I had had a cell phone earlier, like I don't think that would have helped me at all in terms of like building like websites and apps and everything. Um I think like the most important part, the most important thing, I think, especially for young people, is like learning how to develop real relationships, real friendships. And I mean, I think phones can like cell phones can help for sure with you know like organizing, like meeting with friends and stuff. But I think what can happen is if you become so used to always like all your friendships are online. It's like all you're doing is like texting your friends, then as soon as like ChatGBT comes out, it's like there's not a huge difference between texting your friend. Like there doesn't feel seem to be a huge difference between texting your friend and texting and chatting with Chat GBT. Um ChatGBT will probably just be nicer to you and know a little more than your friend. But I think um I think that that can definitely be a danger for young kids having phones, is it's just not being able to um see the real difference between authentic friendships and relationships and relationships with someone online or an AI online. Like it's just it's very um, it can be hard to um like distinguish between those, especially for young people. So I think I think it's super important for for young people to learn how to use technology. And Carlo Q just built his first website when he was 12. Um and like growing up, we had we had like a fan like computer that we would use. And I remember we would do like various different projects on those. We used um scratch, which is like this, like it kind of like taught like kids, it's like this um computer program that would like kind of teach kids to learn how to code. Um so we use that. And I I think it's I think it's really important for kids to learn how to use technology. But I think it's just um I think it's just super important that they learn how to use it well, and then it doesn't replace like real authentic friendships um or critical thinking, like being able to just think for themselves.

Sheila Nonato 34:44

Yeah, that's um yeah, that's super important actually, what you're saying, that you kind of you realize that even though you didn't have a cell phone, you you had sort of a grounding in human relationships first. Because you you you saw the sort of the the power of technology later on to um to help people um to also spread the faith, but um but you you haven't lost sight of the fact that you know we we do exist in community and human relationships are important, and it's very I guess difficult for a kid to distinguish, you know, because now the the lines of reality can be blurred on the internet, right? Like sometimes I I myself uh get fooled by a news story, which was actually fake. Um, you know, and then you're believing, like, oh, it was that, but it's actually not, because I just saw three other stories with different names of the same the same person, but then you know it's uh okay, yeah. So now the lines of reality are kind of blurred and you need discernment, um, as you were saying earlier, too. Um, and so how did you you went to the heights and my husband has listens to the podcast? It's it's like a near mythical status uh in our household, like you know, this great educational. Um was it a high school or elementary school?

Peter Cooney 36:08

It was it's from third to twelfth grade.

Sheila Nonato 36:11

Oh, okay.

Peter Cooney 36:12

I didn't go there until high school.

Sheila Nonato 36:14

Um okay, until high school.

Peter Cooney 36:16

Yeah.

Sheila Nonato 36:17

And did you what did you learn from there? What kind of grounding did you get from there?

Peter Cooney 36:24

Um, I mean, I yeah, I learned so I learned so much from there. Um, so one of the one of the great things they had was like every student had a mentor um who's like one of the teachers. And that was that was super great because they really taught us how to um like be responsible with just like balancing all of our work um and balancing our priorities, like always prioritizing God, of course. But then also um just like how to work well, um how to have a really good schedule. Um all these all these things that when I went to college, I didn't like appreciate them as much in high school. I was like, okay, like whatever. I went to college, it like I it it totally threw me off like how many people lacked like so many of these things, um, lacked like a proper schedule and like the ability to work well. Um so I think that was it was something I didn't appreciate until I left, but just learning how to work really well and just balance um just balance everything in in life, um with yeah, always keeping faith as a priority. Um and then also I think friendships, they it I mean you can't really teach someone how to how to have a good friendship, but they definitely like fostered that environment there. Um I've so many, so many great friends from high school that I still stay in touch with um a lot. And that was another thing. Like when I when I went to college, so many, so many of my friends in college, like when it's like time to go home for break, they're like, oh, like I don't want to go home, like I don't have any friends at home, which always like surprised me. I was like, I have like so many friends from high school that I'm still in touch with and I love hanging out with and super solid friends. Um so I think those were two of the biggest the biggest things, but um I mean there, yeah, there were there were so many things about the heights that I learned so much from and I think has really helped me um to yeah, get to the point like where I'm at right now.

How To Join And What’s Next

Sheila Nonato 39:09

Awesome. And um, so when you started the app, like did you have you have investors? Like how did you how did you guys start this off? Are you looking for investors? How do how do people kind of uh well how do they sign up? And then if they want to, I don't know, maybe partner up with you or something, like how do they get in touch with you?

Peter Cooney 39:31

Yeah, so um the website is just acutisai.com and it's completely free to sign up. There are paid plans. Um the cheapest one being $16 a month.

Speaker 39:46

Okay.

Peter Cooney 39:46

Although I guess you're in that's in US dollars, I guess in Canada. So I don't know what the conversion is. Um but yeah, acutisai.com. It's in the app store right now. It's not yet on Android. We're hoping to get that in the next couple weeks. We're just we just need to wait for Google to verify some things. Um but yeah, I mean, you can follow us on Instagram at just acutisai. And it's also in Spanish and Italian now. So for any Spanish or Italian speakers, right now, if you asked a question in like any language, it'll answer in any language. But if you ask in Spanish or Italian, then it'll give you an option to change the whole interface to Spanish or Italian. And hopefully we'll add more languages um this summer.

Sheila Nonato 40:41

Awesome, awesome. And um, so what yeah, what is next for ACUDIS AI? Um, as you're saying, you were working on something for the summer. What can we look forward to?

Peter Cooney 40:51

Yeah, so there's so there's so many things that um we want to work on. We want we're hoping to work with some schools this summer, and I think it would be a good way for teachers to be able to see like what their students are asking about. Um, they can see like different topics that um if a ton of students are asking about this one topic, then um they can like focus more on that topic in their teaching. So I think we want to build some sort of infrastructure for schools. And then I mean, definitely continuing to refine the app, we want to add more like plugins. We want it to be something that can be useful for people for everyday life. Um, so one of the things we're working on that we're gonna try to really refine this summer is it's basically like um like a morning summary. So it'll give you like the top like news stories, just general news, and it'll give you like church news. Um, it has like a quote of the day. And then we're adding like a calendar integration so it can show you like what's on your calendar for the day. Um we're gonna add an email integration to summarize any important emails you have. And then hopefully we'll add we'll be able to add audio also so someone can just like listen to the whole summary, like on their way to work or whatever. Um, and then add like different like morning offerings, maybe daily, daily readings, make it like pretty customizable so people can add anything they want. Um an idea with that is we just want it to be like the goal is for it to be something where it's useful for everyday life, but with the faith like inside of it, um, to kind of like help people like live the faith in their in daily life. So instead of just like reading through the news on whatever Wall Street Journal or whatever, um it's you're still reading like the normal news, but it kind of has like some like it adds more of like a Catholic aspect to it to help build um like the faith into your daily life, essentially. So that that's one of the things. Um yeah, I mean, I'm we're always open to suggestions of of any other features or anything we should add. But yeah, Philip, we're we're gonna be busy this summer.

Sheila Nonato 43:39

Amazing. Um that's yeah, that all sounds awesome. And as you're saying, like integrating because everyone has a phone now nowadays, right? Uh well, especially the adults anyway. You know, the phone, you wake up, you know, it wakes you up. It has all your contacts, calendar, everything. Um, you can work off of the phone, right? And having that, you know, integrate the prayer. Like, I think one of our top podcast episodes is about how to sanctify social media and how to pray. And I just was surprised about that. That people are Googling how to pray. It's like, oh, okay. Um, yeah, so it's it's really cool that you're doing this. Um, congratulations to you and your brother and your family. Um, say hello to your parents if you see them. Yeah, for sure. Soon and your brother as well, um, and your siblings. Um they were all awesome. I wish we could spend more time with them. Um the last time we visited, I think it was two years ago now. Um and I don't know if you guys, yeah, when you come up to Canada sometime, I don't know. Hopefully we can see you again.

Speaker 44:39

Yeah, hopefully, hopefully soon.

Sheila Nonato 44:40

Yeah, yeah. I feel bad that the last time we saw you, you were very little. And you know, it's like like yeah, 15 years ago now. It's uh long time. That's crazy. But yeah, was there anything else you wanted to add?

Peter Cooney 44:53

Um I don't think so.

Sheila Nonato 44:56

Yeah, cool. Okay. Um, well, I really appreciate your your time. Did you want to say maybe let's close off with a glory bee? Absolutely. Name the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen. Glory be to the father.

Peter Cooney 45:09

Glory the father and to his son and to the holy spirit.

Sheila Nonato 45:13

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, thank you very much for bringing the story and for the inspiration from St. Carlo Acutis. Um, yeah, I'm really actually excited about this app because I am also wondering as a parent, how do I integrate? Um, because it's, you know, it's the reality now, you know, social media and the internet and all that. And my kids are are growing up in this age. Um, they are looking to learn how to code, um, you know, playing video games and all that, and also having questions, genuine questions about the faith. Why is it this way? Why is it that way? Why can't we do this? You know, why do we do this? Um, but yeah, thank you again, and uh, I appreciate your thank you. God bless you, all the best. Thank you again.

Peter Cooney 46:04

Yeah, thank you so much.

Sheila Nonato 46:05

Thank you. Take care.

Co-Host 46:08

Thank you for listening to the Veil + Armour Podcast. I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel, and please spread the word. Let's Be Brave, let's Be Bold, and Be Blessed together.