I am not currently a practicing Catholic but I have become deeply enamored by Pope Leo. Not just because he chose the name of my youngest son, or because of his Chicago roots and professed love for Aurelios pizza (the restaurant my mother-in-law managed for 30+ years), but because of his brave and moral leadership in a truly complicated time.

He continued this leadership this week by releasing his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” about AI. Popes write only a handful of these guiding letters in a lifetime and the choice to make this topic his very first says a lot.

His main message is that AI should not be a competitive or commercial discussion (among an elite few), but a moral one: technology and AI must support human flourishing.

While IMHO this point of view should be completely uncontroversial, believe it or not, that is not the case.

The Pope agrees with AI leaders like Musk and Altman that humanity stands at a crossroads - but that the questions that must urgently be asked (where are we going and toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves as a people and human community?) are not ones we are currently aligned on asking.

And so above all, he calls for “disarming” AI - more regulation to free the technology from monopolistic control and opening it to inclusive, human-friendly discussion and debate.

My thoughts: this is one time where I wish the Church did have more regulatory authority because I don’t have high hopes that the billionaire techbros will slow their charge. But, I appreciate the importance the Pope is placing on this and the concrete recommendations. Also, it was announced together with a co-founder of Anthropic - which at least means the Church and the AI labs (well, one of them) are talking.

I’ve often championed the importance of having quality relationships for our wellbeing, health, and happiness. But that word - quality - can feel frustratingly vague. What does it actually mean in practice, and how do we build it?

I stumbled on an article this week that featured insights from leading psychologists across the relational spectrum. According to them, there is no one-size-fits-all definition of "quality relationship." But interestingly, each type of relationship in our lives has a precise, defining element that, when present, becomes transformational.

Here is the breakdown:

The Spark for this week: Look at that list above. Which of these five areas currently has that defining element? Which one feels like it could use a little extra attention and TLC?

Our neighborhood is having a young entrepreneurs competition and it got me thinking that something like this could be a great way to take AI for a spin - in a way that can challenge and inspire kiddos’ thinking while, together, you can co-learn some fun and creative AI tools.

You can run with a “What Could I Make Better” summer challenge in any way that inspires you, but in the spirit of keeping it simple, here’s one way to get started:

Getting started: have your kid(s) pick one thing in the house or daily routine (e.g. ineffective lego storage, toothpaste on the sink, not a “cool enough” bedroom, boring breakfast options, the annoying way mom wakes them up every morning, etc. etc.) that bugs them, and they get to brainstorm and build (with a little AI help) a better solution.

The main rule: the problem and starter idea(s) have to come from your kiddo(s).

Pro tip: Try this together in your preferred AI (e.g. Claude Cowork/Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT) but also have some fun in the prototype phase using other AI tools and features (e.g. Artifacts in Claude, Canvas mode in Gemini or Stitch, Vibe coding tools Replit or Lovable, etc).