Tired of science fiction that leaves readers feeling cold, empty, and convinced the universe is indifferent to human life, Andrew Gillsmith set out to write something different. His new novel Our Lady of the Artilex — set 250 years in the future, where androids begin reporting apocalyptic religious visions and the Vatican sends a neuroscientist-turned-exorcist to investigate — is his attempt to bring genuine theological weight back into speculative fiction. Brian From talks with Andrew, a Catholic convert with a data science background, about the question behind the book: can AI imitate the soul? Andrew's answer is a clear no — AI isn't conscious, doesn't have a will, and isn't made in God's image — but he's careful to explain just how convincingly it can mimic those things, and why that mimicry is dangerous precisely because humans (and even birds, as one wild study shows) are biologically wired to respond to it. They also dig into Pope Leo's recent encyclical on AI, why the church shouldn't be afraid but should be discerning, and the looming push to merge AI with transhumanist ideas that reduce human consciousness to mere computation. Find the book at ourladyoftheartilex.com or wherever books are sold.