Before dawn, Father Paolo Benanti climbed to the bell tower of his 16th-century monastery, admired the sunrise over the ruins of the Roman forum and reflected on a world in flux. "It was a wonderful meditation on what is going on inside," he said, stepping onto the street in his friar robe. There is a lot is going on for Benanti, who, as both the Vatican's and the Italian government's go-to artificial intelligence ethicist, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.

PAOLO BENANTI wakes early in the monastery in Rome where he lives to begin each day in prayer. But outside of the monastery, Benanti's life is less typical. He trained as an engineer and ethicist, and he now spends his time at the nearby Pontifical Gregorian University, where he teaches the ethics of artificial intelligence. He also frequently walks over to visit Pope Francis himself, to whom he has become a trusted adviser on AI. This has become an important topic for the pontiff because he fears it could adversely affect the most vulnerable members of society, and increase the world's already stark inequality.