Latest / Reeling It In with Collin Bass / 036 - Building Acutis AI w/ Peter Cooney: A Catholic Alternative to Artificial Intelligence

Transcript

036 - Building Acutis AI w/ Peter Cooney: A Catholic Alternative to Artificial Intelligence · Reeling It In with Collin Bass

• Collin Bass: Five, four, Peter Cooney: Ha ha ha. Collin Bass: three, two, one. Welcome back to your learned end. I'm your host, Colin Bass. Today I sit down with Peter Cuney, a 21-year-old economics student at the University of Dallas, who With the help of his brother Thomas has built ACUDIS AI, a faith-based AI platform grounded in Catholic moral teaching designed to give families a trustworthy alternative to Silicon Valley's chatbots. Peter, without further ado, welcome to the show. Peter Cooney: Thanks so much, Colin. Thanks so much for having me on. Collin Bass: Yeah, yeah. Well I cannot wait. I've been looking forward to this conversation. We met just several months back at a little networking event and I've just been fired up to see not only a a Catholic AI, but a Catholic AI that or someone who's a passionate about Catholic AI that's not just based in helping people learn more about the faith. Those things are important, but I think it's also even more important to have that perspective of Catholic moral teaching. really in the real world, the battling real world problems and questions. so I'm excited to dive into it, but tell the listeners a little bit about your background, where you're coming from, where you're at in your life, and then we'll dive into acudis here in a minute. Peter Cooney: Yeah, so I grew up in Maryland. when I was younger, I was homeschooled, raised in a Catholic family. my mom would bring us to Daily Mass every day. So I have a super like strong background there, thanks to my parents. and then for high school I went to a Catholic all boys' high school in the area, which was a super super solid high school. I got a ton out of that, made a ton of really good friends. and then went to UD after that. another another Catholic school. So I've kind of been in the Catholic circle my my whole life. and UD UD has been UD's been great. I think the best part of it so far has been my sophomore year. so about a year and a half ago, I got to do a semester abroad in Rome. And one of the places we went was a CC and in a CC we saw I saw I got to see Carlo Cutis's body, it was like so cool, it's like one of coolest things I've ever done. that's kind of like how everything really got started, I would say, like going to a CC and seeing Carlo's body. But yeah, that's kinda that's kind of sh Collin Bass: Yeah, do you feel like there was a moment there? Yeah, do you feel like there's a moment there while you were visiting that you felt a call to this particular like mission for your life? Or was that something already kind of stirring before you went to a CC? Peter Cooney: So I would say like I've always kind of been into technology and like building websites and apps and stuff like that. and then going to a CC seeing Carla was really cool because it was like he literally look he was like looked like he could have been like one of my friends. Like he was just wearing Nike sneakers, like it's like a totally normal kid just lying there. And I was like, my gosh, like there's this kid who has the same interest as me. Like he built websites and he built a website about Eucharistic miracles. And he looks like just a totally normal kid. And he's like about he wasn't a saint at the time, but he was about to become a saint. And I was like, this is crazy. Like if if we just use like what we're good at and use our talents, like it doesn't have to be like Anything crazy, like we can like anyone can become a saint. So I think it was kind of that moment. and like some like time like time afterwards, like thinking about it, where I was like, wow, like I I don't have to do anything like super crazy and I can I can still become a saint. So that was before like I thought of building like an AI platform or anything like that. But it kind of just gave me that like realization like in the in the back. Collin Bass: Yeah, no, I think that's so powerful. Like for us to just have a good example. I think that's been really eye-opening for a lot of our generation. We have a good example of a saint who's younger than us, died younger than than we are, but really didn't die that long ago either. And he's in heaven. we were certain of that. I'm curious, like your perspective on like just before we get even get into the work that you do, like what your passion in your work. has to do with your sanctity, right? Not theologically wise, but tell me like, because we both believe that as Catholics, like the our work is important, but tell me what you th Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: what you feel that it's done so far whenever you have a mission that's so deeply tied to what you believe is your call for your life, what that what that does for you and your yeah in your in your walk with the Lord. Peter Cooney: Yeah, well I think it's really cool because like I don't think someone has to be building like a like building like a Catholic platform or like working for a Catholic organization to have dignity in their work. I mean those are great things. But I think just Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: like work in itself, no matter what it is, can glorify God, like if you're doing it the right way. So like even if you're just like, I don't know, like working at McDonald's your whole life, you I think you can still become a saint that way if you put your very best into it and just try to give glory to God through it. So there's definitely an element for me of like, yeah, like I wanna build like I wanna build something that'll help people come like become closer to God. but I think I think you can do that with with any with any job, like if you just show like love to the people around you and just work your very best no matter what it is for God and see it as kind of like kind of like helping Jesus like carry his cross in a way. just like working hard. I think that's the best way to sanctify our work. And I think anyone can become a saint just by working like really hard and doing really good work. like what they're Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: doing, like where they are in life. So I think work is great. Collin Bass: Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. I love it. I think the perspective is just wonderful to hear. and I it just to zoom back out, I know we went a little deep there for a second. I love that you've been able to take this perspective and apply it so deeply into a project. that's really taken it over your perspective. and I'm curious too to kind of go back to your own story. You come from a homeschool background, right? did you guys Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: did you have anything within that within your teaching in your home and in the the classes that you guys had, that really led you to this entrepreneurial sort of spirit that you cultivated over last couple of years. Peter Cooney: Yeah, so it's funny, I think about this a lot. I think that actually played a huge part because like when we were kids gr like young, like growing up, we my mom would just like give us like a list of like this is what you guys get done today. And it was kind of up to us to figure out how we were gonna get it done. And so a lot of times we would just wake up like super early at like six AM and just get all of our work done. We'd be done by ten AM and we could just go do whatever we wanted. And so there was much more like flexibility, like we kind of like planned out our own schedule. We just figured out how we were gonna get these things done. And I think I mean I think for kids, I think that's a much better approach than being stuck in like a desk and you just have to listen Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: to the teacher and super like structured. everyone's like forced to learn the same way. Because I think everyone learns in different ways. So I think that actually plays it huge part in a way, just being able to learn more independently and kind of figure stuff out on our own. because I mean by the time we were in I don't know, probably past like fifth grade, like my mom would teach us like a little bit, but it was mostly us just learning everything on our own. And so we kind of we kind of adopted this mindset of just figuring things out. Like if there's something we gotta do, we just figure out how to do it. And so I think that definitely connects to like acutis is is probably the I don't know, like the fifth like big project we've started. We've started so many different like various things. And I think that's just because it's like we see the problem and like we see something that needs to get done. And we're just like, okay, let's figure out how to do this. And I think most of that honestly comes from Homeschooling. So I like when I was younger, when I was in middle school, I was like so excited to go to high school. I I'm so ready to be done homeschooling. But looking back on it, I'm I'm I'm glad that I was homeschooled. Collin Bass: Yeah, yeah. And you're probably so far ahead of your of your friends in high school and you have this different perspective on like you're practically working in the real world and then you set back in high school a very structured approach to education. Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: Then you gotta go back to the real world. you said you had five ventures or Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: maybe this one's the fifth one. What what were the others that kind of built up to to this point or different different projects that led you here? Peter Cooney: Yeah, I don't know. I five is just a number I threw out there, but we Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: so we built a basically like this security system where it could connect it was a software that could connect to cameras and then we trained it to be able to detect like any guns or threats, weapons. And so our idea was we can sell it to churches, they can connect it to their current security cameras, and then A, they can count all their all the people coming to the church. So they get a head count for every mass. And then B, they can if it detects someone walking to the church with a gun, it can like alert all the ushers and everyone. and so we built it and it would like it works pretty well. It was just churches are super slow to work with. And so when we were trying to like talk to them, just like test it out at different churches, it was super they're just pretty slow getting back to us. So that was kind of when we started building actist while we were kind of just waiting for them to get back to us. And then Q started going well. So we're like, okay, let's do this full time. so that was one thing. And then another thing, we started building this app for my youngest brother has Down syndrome. And so it was like a speech app basically to help him with his speech. that wasn't really anything we were really intending on selling. I mean we were Thought maybe we'd put on the App Store. but we didn't we didn't actually end up like doing too much with it. so that was kind of just like a fun, a fun little project. And then we did last summer we did a lot of work like building websites for people and doing social media management. So we kind of started this little like marketing agency sort of where we were just like build websites for people. so that was fun. There's just a lot of like friends and family who just needed websites for various things. and that's kind of how we learned how to like without that I think it would have been much harder to to build a QTIS because that kind of gave us like we kind of learned like the whole like framework for all of it and how to set everything up. and then yeah, so those were kind of like the three like big things that came before acutis. I mean when we were growing up, we would always be starting like random clubs and stuff, on little businesses. My brother started like a shoe cleaning business at his school where kids would just like pay him like fifty bucks or something to like clean their super dirty shoes. and then yeah, so th those were those were three of the bigger ones. Acutus I guess was Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: the fourth, like the fourth big one. And then yeah, even now there's like various little things were kind of worked on on the side. Like Acutus is definitely the main thing. but yeah, so Collin Bass: I'm always curious. I'm always curious too, like, is this something that runs in your family or just you and your brother having the time and the desire? was there a moment where your dad was like, I'm gonna cut you off, you need to go make your own money? Or was there was there just like other mentors you looked up to that inspired you to be like this? Like what other than having the extra time in homeschooling? Like there are homeschool kids that I know that, you know, don't aren't as ambitious or busy with their time. Was there any moment in your life that like really stirred up these desires to like make the most of the projects you have at hand? Peter Cooney: I mean, I don't I can't tie it back to any moment. I think it's just Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: I think part of it is my brother and I are pretty close in age. So I think growing up, like we were always like kind of competitive and we're always trying to be like the best at everything. and then we kind of figure out later, like if we just like work together then we can we can get a lot more done. Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: But so I yeah, I can't really tie back to a specific like moment or something when like I realized like I can like start all these things. It's kinda just been like honestly as long as I remembered, I've just loved starting things and yeah, I mean I start I remember starting a club for like me and my friends when was I don't know, I was probably like seven or something and we started this this club and we were like raising money for it to like buy I don't even know, like t shirts or something. So yeah, I think kind of just from a pretty young age, we're both kind of just just liked starting things and so I I think that's kind of just where it comes from. my Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: parents have never been like, okay, you have to go like go make your own money. They've always been super supportive of everything we're doing and super like always willing to help with with anything. So yeah. Collin Bass: Well, I love it. And on top of all that and all the desires you have and the projects that you're taking care of, you decide to still go to college. And I'm curious about that journey too, because a kid like you, most of the time it seems like, especially in our generation, they are reluctant to go to school because they either don't have the time or they they don't feel like they need the the degree because I mean a guy like you really will never need a a degree. But I think it's probably more so for the connections and all those other things that that tie into the schooling. Tell us about that journey and why you you decided to go to University of Dallas and why you think that going to school is still is still important for you and what that's played into Peter Cooney: So important. Collin Bass: your journey as well. Peter Cooney: Yeah, so I've definitely gone back and forth a lot. I've definitely considered dropping out a good bit. I think a lot of it is my parents really encouraged me to go and just get a degree. So I think I think that was definitely a big part of it, because I mean, historically throughout my life, they've always been right about all these decisions. So so that was that was definitely a big part of it. and then I think I mean, I think at the end of the day, like college, yeah, in terms of the degree, like I don't think it it's most likely won't help me much. But there are definitely a lot of things that I've gotten out of it aside from just a degree. So even just being in Dallas is a good example. I mean, there's so like I met you in Dallas. Like there's so many so many great people in Dallas, such a great network in Dallas. So just getting connected to those people I think was was huge. And then I mean I've made a lot of great friends at University of Dallas. so I think that I mean that alone makes it worth it to a certain extent. yeah, I mean, looking back, would I have would I still have gone to college? I'm not like a hundred percent sure if I actually would have, but But I th I mean I I also think like some of these ideas came from being at University of Dallas, like liberal arts school. I mean, one of the classes I took my last fall was like a Catholic social thought class and it was in the economics department, but one of the things that we talked about was AI and like how it not only how it like affects the economy, but how it affects like the worker and human dignity and all these different things. And it was something I had been thinking about. But then I had to write a research paper for that class. I was like, I'll just research this, like look into this more. Like I find this interesting. And so that definitely got me like thinking a lot more about these things and and looking into them a lot more, even just like outside of class. So I think I think in terms of like the actual degree, like yeah, I don't think it'll be that helpful and if someone's going to college only to get a degree, like I think that's I don't know. I think it's there are better ways there are better ways to make money and whatever. But I think there's a lot more that you can get out of college aside from just the degree. yeah, friends, teachers, mentors, and just like yeah, like a UD they emphasize really learning how to think well. And yeah, I mean there are definitely a lot of classes I sit through where I'm just like, I could be doing so much else right now. Like, why am I in this class? But at the end of the day, I think I I have gotten I have gotten a lot out of it. I'm ready to be done, but I I don't I don't I wouldn't say I regret going. I'm still not a hundred percent sure that I would in retrospect that I would still go. But But I that's where I am, so yeah. Collin Bass: Hey, there you go. So you're you're the twenty-one-year-old kid, you're at Catholic school and you're still doing putting in all this all this time and effort into your newest project, ACUDIS AI. Tell us about like the breaking point when you realized Acudis was going to be your next big project and when that was going to take over your perspective, but also the next several years and really the foreseeable future. And like what was the original thesis or problem you were trying to solve when you stepped into it? Peter Cooney: Yeah, so I remember we kind of thought about this last fall. So I mean, since ChatGBT came out in like November twenty twenty two, we've always I mean we've been using it the whole lot. Like we're when it first came out, we were like, Wow, this is like really cool. Like it's gonna change the world in a lot of ways. Like I don't really know how, but we should like figure out how to use it, make the most of it. And so we learned how to use AI and apply it to so many different things. But then like kind of in like last fall we realized like what I was kinda like, what happens if I ask it about like a moral question? 'Cause that was something I hadn't really done. Like I hadn't when I used it for like work and stuff, like I hadn't used it as like a therapist or an advice like a mentor or anything. I was like I was like, there are definitely people using it for that though. And so I was like, what happens if I ask it about like is abortion okay? And the answer is really bad. Like it just reflects the viewpoints of the company, which is not aligned with Catholic teaching at all. So that's like that's a big problem because like the way it talks is very convincing. It's like it sounds like a super smart person who knows exactly what they're talking about and who's always right like 100% of the time. But the thing is it's wrong like a lot of times. And so we're like, okay, this is this is a problem. And then I heard a podcast with Sam Altman talking Tucker Carlson about it and Tucker Carlson asked him, like, where do you get your moral framework? Like, where do you make the moral decisions about like when people ask these types of questions? Like, where do you draw it from? And Sam Altman basically said, We have this team of moral philosophers who think a lot about this stuff and make these decisions. And it's like, we don't know who these moral philosophers are, like we don't know what their religions are, like where their viewpoints are coming, but they're basically forming this model that answers questions of millions of people a day. And so we're like, okay, this is this is like a really big problem. Like there's gotta be a solution for it. And we're like, what if the moral framework was just Catholicism? Like the Catholic Church has been around for like whatever, 2,000 years. Like What if we just use the church's teaching as the moral framework? That's a pretty solid framework. And so we were like kind of looking around, like, let's see if anything else like this exists. Like there's gotta be something. And there were other companies who did a similar thing, but the thing is we wanted something that could be used for like anything. Like we wanted an app that could completely replace ChatGPT. I could be like, okay, I'm deleting ChatGPT from my phone, my computer, whatever. I'm just gonna use this app. And there weren't any platforms really like that. Like most of the platforms were really solid, like gave really good Catholic answers, but mainly focused on like Catholicism. Like it wasn't the type of thing where I would go into one of these other apps and say, Okay, help me build this website. Like it it wouldn't help me like it wouldn't be very good. And so we're like, Okay, let's just build it. so We started building it like over in December over Christmas break. And as we were like building it more and more, that's kind of when we realized the like second big issue, which is also something I hadn't thought a whole lot about because I was 20, almost 21 at the time. And it was like, okay, so ChatGPT is responding really bad to my questions, but I know it's wrong. Like I know abortion is not okay. Like ChatGPT tells me that. I know that's bad. I know I can't change my gender, even though ChatGPT sa ChatGPT says it's totally okay. I know it's not okay. But what if a kid is asking that? Like what if a 10-year-old is asking that? And I think that's where we realized like that's like the I think that's the biggest danger with AI, is not it lying to 20, 30, 40 year olds, but it lying to like 10 year olds who don't really know the difference at that point between a person talking to them or texting them and Chat GBT, it sounds almost exactly like a person. And it's just giving them like completely wrong information. And so we're like, okay, we should build this. Yes, like it can be used by anyone and it'll tell the truth. But we should focus like especially on kids and teenagers. And I think like I think that's the most important thing. Like they have to learn how they I mean it has to be safe for them. So can't be like telling them lies. But then also I think there's like a whole aspect of like there are ways to use AI really well that can be super productive and help you do things better and help you focus on on like the more important things and get rid of like the like tedious tasks. And then there's also ways to use AI that are just a total waste of time and like don't help you and make you dumber honestly. And so we're like, let's focus specifically on helping kids learn how to use AI really well and keeping them safe at the same time. So we don't want them to become like best friends with the Chat GPT. So we're like, okay, we'll cut out like the follow up and we'll cut out the super like affirmative, like validating language. So it just like it doesn't sound like this like super nice person who's like your best friend. It just gives you the information and that's it. And then also something we're working on now is trying to make it very clear like where the answers are coming coming from. So instead of a kid asks a question and just magically this answer appears. So we're trying to like trace out the steps so they can see, okay, like this is exactly so it did like a web search. okay. Like it went into Like if they're asking a moral question, okay, it went into this into like pulled from the church sources. it pulled from this church source. I can go read through that whole church source and like see where this answer is actually coming from. It's coming from an encyclical that was written like a hundred years ago, not just a team of moral philosophers who came up with this like a week ago. So Yeah, kind of tracing back like exactly where the answer's coming from. So it's clear to them. It's like this is actually like a process. It's just like a machine. It's not just like a person who's just like talking to you. so yeah, it was kind of like a two step process, like realizing the the problem. And the first was like it's not aligned with Catholic teaching, it's actually very post Catholic teaching. But then also it's just like really harmful to kids and it's leading kids astray. So yeah, we kind of shifted our perspective kind of like halfway through building it to really be focusing on kids and keeping them safe. But yeah. Collin Bass: That is crazy. I don't think I realized what go what all goes behind the scenes of an algorithm. I I even work in cybersecurity and that's like what I I'm passionate about tech and all these things. but I never listened to that interview with Same Altman and and Tucker Carlson. And I don't think I really realized to the extent like, Peter Cooney: It's really interesting. You should you should definitely listen to it. It's Collin Bass: yeah, to the extent of like. what actually is being formulated. And I think we always hear about conspiracies, and there's a lot of conspiracies that end up becoming true, like just with the government or one the things that they they work on behind the scenes that we don't even realize. And I think I Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: just assumed the algorithm was just a bunch of letters and numbers that make up the the scientific formula for an for an AI bot. But what I didn't realize was how strategically that is actually probably being used in our society. And like very similarly to how Elon Musk acquired Twitter to kind of rip it out of where it was and the direction Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: that it was going in the brain rot that it was creating. And not to say Peter Cooney: A hundred percent. Collin Bass: that it's all that much better now, but it's a similar mission that I think you you have, but specifically from the Catholic realm, where you're stepping into the space and you're like, wow, this is so corrupt and also terrible Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: to know that not only are kids becoming best friends and using this as their therapist and in their God in lot of ways, but also it's feeding them false information. suck them in deeper. and I yeah, I I I didn't even realize most of those things. So I definitely need to go back and listen to that. Peter Cooney: Yeah, I mean, it's just crazy that like it's this technology that's that's giving information to like millions of people every day, but it's just controlled by like a really small group of people and like the guardrails. So the way like they have like the model, right, that just uses a ton of data from the internet. And it's I mean, a lot of it is like Reddit posts and stuff. So it's not great data. So they need to put some guardrails on it. Cause then otherwise like like you don't want it to be able to like teach people how to create like nuclear weapons or anything. So you need some sort of just big model that's like super powerful and it can kind of give you like anything. So you need to put some guardrails around that. And a lot of most of those guardrails are just like a system prompt that they put on top. So if you call the the GPT model just using like an API. the answer will be way different than if you actually use Chat GPT and just ask ChatGPT question because chat ChatGPT has like this whole system prompt and that's where they instill their morals and values and like the tone of voice they wanted to use and all these different things. But like the system prompt is just like it's just like a big document. Like they can just go in and edit it however they want. I don't know if you heard about this was probably I don't know, maybe a year ago or so. when Grok started saying that it was like Hitler and all this crazy stuff. And like they had it fit like this came Collin Bass: Significant. Peter Cooney: out on it was like one night, like it started just like going crazy and people on X were like sending like taking screenshots and like what is happening. And by the next morning it was it was fixed. And the reason they're able to fix it so quickly is because it's just all they need to do is change a couple of lines in the system prompt. So it's super easy to just like like if that's how easy it is to fix something, it's like super easy to also make something really bad. all all the open AI team would need to go would would need to do is go into their big system prompt prompts this big document and like change some of the language. And it's like we have no idea what it says. We have no idea how they're telling it to respond to us. And we have no idea like the people. who are telling it how to respond to us. So it's yeah, I mean it's crazy, it's super dangerous, but I think a lot of people don't aren't like totally aware of like where the answers are coming from. And I think it's Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: something that people should know. Collin Bass: Totally. And I think that's a really good just red flag for anybody to know about using AI by themselves, let alone if it's a tool that like you're letting your kids use. It's something you have to be aware Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: of. and I'm I'm curious too more about your moral framework that you've stapled on top of of the GPT that that you guys use. Tell me just about like Obviously the church teachings being pulled, like that's that's sort of the the guiding framework within that. but you said it should be able to replace Chat GPT. So what are the things that you use it for every day? What are the things that you expect kids to be using it for? And then yeah, what are the things that maybe you can stop kids from doing if they ask the wrong questions or maybe how how it redirects you if you're headed in the wrong direction? Peter Cooney: Yeah, so there's the like parental aspects where we want to give parents f basically full control over what their kids are using it for. And that's something that I haven't seen like ChatGPT has parental controls. I don't know. I don't I don't think any of the other platforms do, but ChatGPT parental controls are basically if a kid asks a question that gets flagged as dangerous, then ChatGPT open AI will look at it internally. And then like if it's bad enough, they'll notify the parents that their kid might have looked at something dangerous. So that the controls are pretty bad. So our controls are basically parents can see every single chat that the kids like anything the kids ask, they can see all of it like from their phone, their computer, whatever. and then they can s they can get notified like if their kids are asking about something dangerous. I mean, there have been like suicides connected to Chat GPT. Where the parents have no idea, and then they look back at the kid's chat history and they're like, wow, like if I'd only known he was like chatting with Chat Chiu T about this, like I probably could have stepped in and done something. So they're they can get notified if their kid asks about anything that can be dangerous. And then they can set like they can block certain topics completely. So like if a kid asks about abortion, like it'll give the correct answer, like it'll give the Catholic. viewpoint that it's bad. But maybe parents don't want it talking to kids about abortion at all. So they can just block that. They can set like time limits, screen time. so those are some of like the pretty basic parental controls we have built in. And then a project we're working on for this summer in the next few months is we're trying to like fine-tune a model specifically designed to answer kids based off of parent feedback. So essentially what we're gonna try to do is get a bunch of questions that kids ask that kids would ask and give acute's current response to them based on age group. So we'll split it into different age groups and then show it to parents and be like, is this good? Is this bad? Like how would you change this? And then they can go in and just edit the response. Then we'll use all of that. We have all these responses from parents on how to respond to kids of different age groups. to fine-tune a model. because then that model will respond specifically to kids. Like it shouldn't respond the same way to a 30 year old that it responds to a 12 year old. So that's kind of how we're going about the kind of like going about the actual like how it will respond to kids, like aside from the actual moral framework, which I think is kind of just like the first step and then yeah like being being used for to replace chat gbt like there are ton of things we're trying to add because I think I think Claude is like the kind of thing we're trying to imitate basically Catholic Claude but with a with a with parental controls and stuff for kids because Claude like I've used Claude a good bit and I think the cool thing about Claude is It kind of you can do so much more than just chat with the AI bot, which I personally don't think is a great use of AI. It's just like chatting with a bot. Like why like why do need to do that? But with cloud you can set up like all these different like automations and stuff. you can build like these different like projects and have it reference context from all these all these like different files and stuff you upload. So that's kind of what we're trying to imitate more is make it so that kids can realize like, yeah, like I can actually use this for a lot more than just like saying like hi, like what's your favorite color? Like stupid stuff like that. Like they can actually use it for something something that can actually like help them like build cool automations and stuff. So yeah, I mean how I use it basically every every time I have a question, I always or need something. I'll ask like a QTIS, then I'll ask Claude or ChatGPT or one of the other models just kind of to compare. helps me see like holes in acuteist, but also it's like, wow, like yeah, this this other models, that's a really bad answer. just yeah, so I can kind of like see where where it's at. Because we want the responses to be really good quality too. Like we don't want it to just be like, okay, like Chat GPT's bad, like you have to use this other thing that's like not as good, but it's like Catholic. It's like, no, like we want it to be really high quality and we want it to be something that can. super useful to people. so yeah, I mean people can choose like paying users can choose what like base model they want to use if they want to use any of the cloud models or GPT models or whatever as the base model. But then it just has a QDS system prompt on top of it with all the like the basically telling it to answer from a Catholic perspective. And then we have our like church library that we built out with a bunch of like the catechism and different encyclicals and apostolic letters and stuff like that. So if it if someone asks a question about anything related to faith, morals, anything like that, then it just references that library and just answers directly from that library. So that's kind of how it will still answer like any questions. Like it can still do web searches for for normal questions. You can ask about pretty much anything. but then when it comes to faith and morals, the responses are I mean, they're I haven't run t into any issues. They're very solid 'cause it's literally just coming from the writings of Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: popes and saints. So Collin Bass: That is cool. What has it taught you about your own faith? Like being able, because I'm sure you've probably read these things and you've gotten into some church documents, but you've probably gotten way more into the weeds since you've started this project. Learning and that trying to ask all these like crazy questions. How has it helped you grow in your own faith life? Peter Cooney: Yeah, I mean it's definitely helps like in terms of the actual like knowledge. Like it's helped a little bit, like as I'm going through adding different encyclicals, it's like, wow, like I didn't I had no idea like Pope wrote about like this like random topic. Like it's like pretty interesting. Like to add the encyclicals to the to the platform, I mean it takes us like like thirty seconds. Like I built out this this system to Adam super quick. So it's not like I'm actually like going through and like manually adding them all. but I think it's helped more so in that I kind of it's like kind of a crazy thing to think about. It's like there a lot of people using acutis and it's giving them information that they're basing like moral decisions off of. Which is kind of like I don't know, like that's kind of like a big weight in a way. And it's like Yeah, like those and decisions or those responses are based off of church teaching. So it's not like I'm telling them like, do this, do that. It's like no, it's it's the church teaching. But it's still like I mean it's really important that the models like that the platform is really good and it's not like referencing the wrong things and so I think in that aspect it's like, yeah, like this thing that we built is helping a lot of people make like moral decisions every day. So I think it's kind of made me realize it's kind of made us both realize it's like super important that we prioritize God and that he's like number one like through all of this. And I think it kind of goes back to Carlo Acutis. Like he was he was a great example of that prioritizing the Eucharist. And I think especially working in the AI and technology. I think it's really interesting because with AI, it's something that seems when you when you chat with ChatGPT or any AI platform, it seems like you're chatting to a human. Like it seems very real. But it's not. It's just like an algorithm and numbers. Like it's not a real thing. But with the Eucharist it just seems like a piece of bread. Seems fake. But it's actually God. Like it's actually Jesus. So it's kind of like reversed in that way. so I think I think it's really important to be to stay super close to the Eucharist, while using any AI systems or anything to kind of like keep you grounded to a certain extent. Because otherwise it's like, yeah, you can it can be super get super easy to blur the line between like reality and like AI. Like it it's it's hard like it can be hard to tell the difference. so I think kind of having the Eucharist I I think I've kind of realized like if I'm gonna build this, like I need to have like the Eucharist as the as the center of my life. otherwise it can it can go bad like pretty fast. Like it can I mean it can get corrupt. Like you can see with all the other AI platforms, like they're pretty corrupt. So Collin Bass: Yeah, man. And I'm I'm inspired by the weight of that mission too, because I mean, that's the same you're you're really living up to the namesake, right? Like that was the the same sort of thing Carlo would live through every single day. Like he wasn't overcomplicating it. He lived a very simple life from what I understand. But he also like lived with this like this powerful drive towards telling the people about Eucharistic miracles. And I think you have a similar Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: a similar experience here where you're not even really trying to evangelize. You're just trying to give people a safe outlet, which I think is really powerful. and I'm curious too, like what is what would it be like from a non-Christian or even non-Catholic perspective to hop into a coudies? Would it be blatantly Catholic where maybe you'd feel out place? Or is it more more so trained morally to make you feel like you can learn from the Catholic perspective without really being in your face Catholic? Tell me about what that looks like. Peter Cooney: Yeah, so the idea is that it just talks naturally from a Catholic perspective. So if you ask a question, it's not gonna say like the Catholic Church says this, it'll just say it. So I think someone can go on there and have no idea that it's a Catholic platform and just use it for anything, like various stuff. I think there's a good chance they wouldn't realize for a good while that it was a Catholic platform. If they asked a moral question, like it cites the sources it uses. So it cites whatever encyclical or whatever part of the catechism that it gets the answer from. So then they could click on that citation and open up the source and see, okay, yeah, this is this is from the church. But it's not like super like it's not like every time you ask a question, it's like, the Catholic Church says this. Like, here's how you can apply this to your faith. Like it's not because I think like That would kind of like annoy me, like if I'm just trying to use it for like a totally like normal thing. If I'm like, like one's Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: one's the first World Cup game and it's like, like here's the first World Cup game, like and here's a church right next door to it. It's like Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: it's like I mean, I don't know. I I th I think I would get kind of annoyed by that. So it's not super it's really just like the framework that is based off of is Catholic. It's not like trying to like push like all these Catholic values in your face. which I think there's definitely like a place for that. Like I think it's good to have like I think if someone wants that, it's like I mean they can they can they can customize a queue just to respond like that if they if they really want that. But I think like I think most people don't want that. And I think we want it to be something that, yeah It's not only Catholics, like anyone can use it. And it's just like even if you're even if you're totally different religion, completely opposed to the Catholic faith, it's like, well, at least you know where the morals are coming from. Whereas with Chat G P T it's like you have no idea where the morals are coming from. It's like any w any religion, any religious person using Chat G P T, they're gonna be s things against the religion 'cause it's just a it's just like a mashup of a bunch of different viewpoints and stuff. But if someone like if the Protestant was using acutis, like sure they don't it's like goes against their faith in like some ways, but at least they know exactly like what it's built upon. So I think it's yeah, like I think it's a good alternative for anyone. 'cause you can trace back like where the answers are coming from. And If they don't if it's someone who's super opposed to church teaching and they see that it's citing something from the catechism and they're like they can choose not to believe it. Like that's that's fine, but at least they know like this is where the answer is coming from. Collin Bass: Yeah, I think it's a really cool perspective. And I do like that, like you said, that it's similar to like a Catholic claude. I love that about Claude. You can see like it goes all the way through all the sources and it t shows you the mind map and then it doesn't give you every Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: source, but it it's pretty good. we're like you're exactly right. You can ask chat for sources, but it's definitely not gonna run you through where it came from. because Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: it probably doesn't even want you to know. whatever. Peter Cooney: It'd be no, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Collin Bass: Yeah, and I think I I love that you at least have the confidence to say like, hey, this is where this perspective is coming from. which I think is honestly a good direction that our any all bots should head like should should go, you know, like even if ChatGPT is going to give us something totally like different than what a coodie sir Claude might, it'd be helpful to know where that's coming from and for the transparency to say like, wow, like this is grounded in fifty Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: percent opinion or it's grounded in a lot of Reddit threads or whatever else. Peter Cooney: Yeah. Collin Bass: like I I love that. about acutis and i think that's a really cool place you're going and even to go back about the direction you guys are taking it with kids and families i love that are there things that you guys are working towards that are on the mind on the roadmap maybe a little bit past past the summer that you're allowing your wheels to turn and think about and get excited about that are maybe a little bit further out Peter Cooney: Yeah, so there's the model we're trying to fine tune that I mentioned earlier, that we're gonna fine tune off of parent feedback. So that's definitely that's definitely a big one. Collin Bass: Yeah. Peter Cooney: And then there's also I don't know if you have ever used Claude's skills where you can like set up these automations to run like you basically like tell it like a like if something like That you have to do on like a r somewhat regular basis, and it's a super like tedious thing. You can just like set up the skill, teach Claude exactly how to do it, and then just like run those skills whenever. So that's something we want to build into a QTIS also. and then I mean we're thinking about doing like a desktop app also, so then parents could give it to their kids and kind of replace like just have that one desktop app and replace. place like delete any other ai app or anything even like any browsing app like you can can use it as a browser to a certain extent so yeah there's I mean there's like a whole there's a whole list of of things things we want to do but essentially we want it we want it to have all the same capabilities as Claude and so it's just adding a lot more. and there I mean it's also cool because there are things in cloud where I'm like, like I wish it did this differently. I wish it did this differently. And it's like, we just add that, build that in. So yeah. And then so there's there's the whole like software aspect. Then there's also an a whole nother thing that we're trying to work on is the educational aspect. So we want to start creating content about how to use AI well, how to use it responsibly. and we're still trying to figure out how to do that. Like whether we want to just do like super short form or like some sort of like courses or something. it would have to be there would have to be almost like two versions, like one tailored for parents and then one specifically for kids. so yeah, I mean there's there's a lot. There's a so much we can do, so much to do. but yeah, I mean my hope is that by December, like someone can go into Acutis and not really be able to tell the difference. I mean like the interface will be like different and stuff, but not really be able to tell the difference in terms of quality between acutis and Claude and be able to do all the same things. They can just completely switch over and it's just as good. They can use it for the same things. but it just gives them a gives them a Catholic framework. So Collin Bass: Dude, that is so cool. I've been inspired by you this conversation. I loved hearing just all the background and the backstories and even learning about AI industry as a whole. I don't think I realized like all that went into it and why this this mission is so important. and especially being tackled by a 21-year-old kid, like you're you're just you're just barely scratching the surface on your potential. And yeah, I'm curious that as we begin to close, what how you look at a life well lived and like how even tackling like your next big project because you're doing more at 21 than most of our listeners will do at 30, 40, 50, 60 years old. Yeah, how do you like stay content in this moment and focus on this project and even give yourself the bandwidth to think about all the other things the Lord will throw at you the future with all that you've tackled at 21? Peter Cooney: Yeah, like I think a lot of people are really concerned especially now with AI, it's like people there's a lot of like uncertainty about the future and what's gonna happen in the future and am I gonna have a job and like what am I gonna do? Like is AI gonna take my job? Like there's all these different concerns that people have. And I definitely like I've definitely experienced that also. Like I remember my freshman year of college, I had no idea what I was gonna do after college. I was like, Yeah, like I can like build websites and stuff, but like I don't know, like how am I gonna like make a living off of like building a website here and there. I was I was like concerned about it. And I think I've kind of just realized that like we don't need to have like our whole lives planned out. Like we don't need to see like super far down the road. If we just like live in the moment where we are and just like do our very best in the moment and just work on stuff, just do stuff. it'll it'll like work out. I think the worst thing we can do is kind of just like sit back think like okay like let me like plan out my life like let me see like what like what am I gonna do. It's like no just like start doing something and then just like see where it takes you because no one knows what's gonna happen down the road. Like no one knows what's gonna happen in in a year in like five years. It's so like I think I think just like for me what I found is just not really think about it too much and just just work on what I can do right now and Just kind of let God take care of everything else. Let him open up all your doors and then he's he's been doing that. He's opened up so many doors for acutis. And I think like if he doesn't want you to do something, then he won't open that door. It's like, okay, like now now you know. But I think yeah, it's like with all the incer uncertainty, kind of just the willingness to just put yourself out there and trust that God will take care of everything else. So that's Yeah, I I guess that's Collin Bass: Two. Peter Cooney: so that's what I would say. Collin Bass: I love it. And you've given such good advice to all our listeners, especially those that are like early in their life, earlier in their career, really just trying to figure out what they want to do. And I think that's the best advice you can give anyone in a perspective that I am actively trying to adopt as well. Is like, hey, like don't look so far out. Like God has given you enough for today. And even in your career Peter Cooney: Absolutely. Collin Bass: and in your life and everything else, you're worried about savings, paying off, paying off your house, your loan, whatever else that you're worried about. Like the Lord has given you enough for today and He'll provide enough for tomorrow too. But you have to just do The work today and show up and see what he's gonna have you do tomorrow when tomorrow comes. So I love that perspective. as we close, the last question usually I usually ask is like older people, I love to hear their perspective on what they wish they knew. but I want to flip the script on you and just get your perspective. Looking out into your life, what is the advice that you think you need in 10 years from now? Peter Cooney: Mm. That's a good question. Yeah, I mean I guess I would say like similar to similar to what I just said is like not yeah, I guess like like don't try to think into the future. Don't try to plan your future. Like that's something that I I can fall into sometimes and like trying to like plan out every detail my life. but I think yeah, just just working my best. Placing God first and yeah, just let it letting him take care of everything. 'Cause there's definitely parts of me that's like, like I can like plan this all out, like I can control everything, I can control like every single outcome if I just like work hard enough and whatever. But it's like, no, like at the end of the day, like I have to step back and just do my very best, but just let let God take care of everything else. So Collin Bass: Come on. I love it. Peter Cooney: I think that's what I'd probably say. Maybe maybe in ten years I'll I'll I'll look back and I'll have something I'll have something better. Like, I should have thought of this. Yeah. Collin Bass: Yeah, I'll s I'll schedule send it to you. no, I'm just kidding. Peter, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for your perspective too. it was Peter Cooney: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Collin Bass: awesome to hear all the background and all that goes into what you're building at ACUDIS and I'm so excited to to share it with our audience and see where it goes next too. Peter Cooney: Yeah, thanks so much. Collin Bass: Perfect.