“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. ” —Romans 12:2
Veritas—truth—is something many people fervently seek in today’s marketplace of ideas. There is demand and supply for opinions, insights, and information of any form that, more often than not, come with the ill intent to shape and manipulate discourse.
Drawing from synodal consultations conducted in 2024, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) counted artificial intelligence as “an open question” alongside that of women deacons, indigenous people, identity and sexuality, and end-of-life care. Because of AI’s “promises and perils” CBCP asserted how it needed an ongoing conversation and collective discernment in spaces where technology intersects with faith.
This article was reproduced from the three plenary talks and subsequent discussion delivered at the CFC Veritas Forum last June 18, 2025, at SPACE at One Ayala, Makati City. The forum’s theme of “The Ethical Use of AI and Social Media” emphasizes our CFC community’s stance that technology and theology should be intertwined in the mission of evangelization.
Plenary talks at the CFC Veritas Forum
The discussion was moderated by Eunice Mareth Areola, PhD HSG, a professor of international affairs at the Seoul National University of Science and Technology and a mother of four, and Rev. Fr. Jason Gonzales, OP, a licentiate and master’s degree holder in theology from the University of the Philippines. The plenary speakers also had stellar professional backgrounds in psychology, economics, and communication—disciplines that cut across technology and theology.
Dr. Bernardino Ofalia is a champion of AI use in wellness management and learning platforms. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology, as well as a doctorate in educational administration from the Pamantasang Lungsod ng Maynila. He is a former director of Mapua University’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Cielo Magno is an advocate for truth in fiscal governance and financial policy. An economist and former Finance Undersecretary, she received her doctorate in law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also a tenured professor in University of the Philippines Diliman where she also earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics.
Dr. Jhennie Villar is a corporate communications professional with experience in public relations and social media management. She graduated magna cum laude for her bachelor’s in communication, as well as for her master’s and doctorate in business administration from Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Connection, attention, ease
Of 114 million Filipinos in 2025, 77 million are on social media. We spend 9 hours a day on the internet, a third of which is spent on social media. Yet how many times has a photo of coffee gotten more ‘likes’ than a photo of a rosary?
This says a lot about our digital ecosystem—where the same gadgets and platforms can bring both connection and discontentment. There are many psychological techniques to get people’s attention by stimulating dopamine production—from the use of red color or blue light, to the way each device and app interface is designed—as well as new psychological realities that make us engrossed in our phones and accounts rather in the world around us.
Political forces, commercial interest, and media ownership further influence how content is produced, distributed, and consumed. People earn money on the back of AI capabilities. Teachers use AI to create PowerPoint presentations, and students even submit AI-generated work—from essays, thesis papers, and even dissertations.
AI agents are capable of creating catchy 30-second videos in just one click, compared to using video-editing platforms which can take up to 3 hours. AI can even suggest stories, generate testimonies, or write reflections that help content creators gain traction in their target audiences—all at the expense of authentic encounters, and truth. People rely on AI, believing its promises of efficiency. But AI doesn’t necessarily make us lazier or smarter. To use AI effectively, the right prompts are needed, especially since newer AI capabilities require smarter commands. AI cannot all the time, give us complete and concrete answers as to what tools to use, which platform to navigate, and which message to communicate.
Regardless of whether human work truly decreases, more work will always remain. People can be lazy even without AI use. Class lessons still need to be presented, repeatedly. Course material still needs to be understood and taken to heart. And in any democracy, truth still needs to be safeguarded against those who seek to corrupt it.
Social media content influences voting patterns among the youth, as well as their opinions and how they form such. No wonder many politicians—or those with more power or funding—nowadays invest heavily in social media campaigns. Influencers and trolls can be hired to sow disinformation in society, directly molding political discourse after their own unethical means and motives.
And because AI models reflect the data they are trained on, further AI outputs multiply the extremely polarized “us versus them” beliefs that digital users end up consuming, believing, and acting upon. It doesn’t take long for these technological mechanisms to fuel malevolent efforts to undermine the truth.
Faces, players, community
AI has made it easier to create online content, and people are now flocking to build their own communities through becoming social media influencers.
Social media influencers strive to be seen as an authentic voice, an entertaining figure, or a generally likeable person that audiences can trust and relate to. To be interesting amidst the noise and competition, influencers act comedic, sarcastic, and mean—some completely creating a different personality just to sell their “products”. Many even engage in cursing, gossip, or making fun of other people—all of which are dangerously taken as authentic and factual. In extreme cases, people even resort to privacy violations, cyberlibel, and real-life exploitation to create viral, entertaining, and attention-grabbing content.
Despite the mental and emotional challenges of having their self-identity influenced by affirmations of ‘likes’ and engagement, the career of social media influencing has been compared by this generation to doctors and engineers—partly because of their ability sway public opinion by hyperlocalizing, or translating, complex messages and information for their audiences.
Influencers sell politicians as products by strategically embedding political messages in their not-very-political content, even if it intensifies disinformation. In practice, this looks like food blogs or cooking tutorials transitioning to political messages disguised as ‘personal opinion’, or travel websites crediting infrastructure to certain public figures—with the subtle reminder of “therefore, we owe them our support.”
That’s why it has now become a political strategy especially during election seasons to hire influencers to target and endorse to audiences, legitimize and amplify political messages, form opinion, and mobilize support.
Another concerning actor in today’s internet landscape are trolls. Trolling, from a sociological perspective, is a narcissistic tendency to control messages despite one’s own ethical values. But in the Philippines, trolling is an industry primarily led by advertising professionals in the formal advertising sector.
Trolls earn PhP30,000-70,000 a month to spread and amplify information regardless of its truthfulness, posing a threat to fact-based information systems such as law, church doctrine, and even national history. Public discourse thus grows polarized as trolls harass other social media users and drown out opposing views—ultimately undermining the basic human rights to self-opinion and expression.
The Philippine government is yet to identify how to intervene. Thus, social cohesion continues to erode throughout the nation, which already struggles in today’s age of constant stimulation, cognitive overload, and addiction to technology.
Impact on ethics
Social media influencing doesn’t uphold the same ethical standards that journalists practice. With AI and new technologies like deepfakes, it’s become far too easy to profit off influencing and content creation without a trace of accountability. Entrusting social media regulation to key stakeholders such as businesses, government, or tech companies can be risky, as it gives them full control over information available on the platforms. With influencers and trolls accessible to the powerful and wealthy alone, social media becomes vulnerable to disinformation used for commercial or political gain.
This lack of a self-regulating environment—where creators reflect on and take responsibility for their actions on the digital space—has turned social media into a surrogate political campaign. Influencers continue to participate in this machinery because of the high payouts or monetization, for the social clout they gain from aligning with certain ideologies, or even because of pressure and coercion. Traditional media outfits such as radio, print, and television, have adopted these same “scroll stopper” tactics to stay relevant. Algorithms worsen the problem by rewarding attention-grabbing content with more reach, and in the Philippines, this results in the rapid spread of flashy, sensational, and misleading political material that erode public trust in its established social institutions like the Church and the State.
Ultimately users should learn to regulate their online activities, seeing it not as an escape from reality but as an extension of their lives that can foster goodness and true hope. Advocates of truth such as journalists, political analysts, laypeople, and clergy should be concerned on these trends, as social media greatly influences human society on both national and global scales.
Church mission in society
Most discourse around media literacy focuses on new and complex ideas about media. This has resulted in generations with a limited sense of civic duty and habits steeped in academic dishonesty, having failed to see how deeply media and technology use can—and continue to—shape their daily lives. At their appropriate stage of development, children and younger generations must be guided to value truth and responsibility, to help them cultivate the zeal and perceptiveness to resist reliance on AI.
Furthermore, there are many ways to disconnect from technology, starting with simply putting your phone away for a couple of minutes every day. But despite the bad actors that strive to flood and control us through overstimulation and social media, we find safe refuge knowing that today’s digital continent—the modern Areopagus—is the street corner where Christ is proclaimed. And as Catholics, we are continually called to participate in this digital ecosystem.
We must redefine communication not as political manipulation or noise, but as a mission to tell the truth well. Using stories and content that transform other people’s lives, we are called to encourage testimonies over trends—not to become viral content creators, but to become excellent guardians of virtue especially in comment sections, group chats, and livestreams. We pave our way in using AI with a clear mind, deciding at each step whether to conform with the world or evangelize it. And as Catholic social media users, we must uphold our responsibility to combat fake news by publishing and sharing genuine and correct information.
Staying silent online isn’t always an act of humility. It’s sometimes a missed opportunity for Christ-centered evangelization—because when we stay silent in the face of anti-Christian messaging, the algorithm amplifies the enemy. We must let our personal testimony, authentic voice, and ethical use of technology be the new algorithm of praise.
Shaping the digital world after Christ
There’s still a lot of work to be done on the socio-political sphere to promote the ethical use of AI. However, political analysts have already begun actively advocate for concrete steps such as guidelines for the disclosure of political content, community reporting initiatives, and human moderation—as well as consequences for non-compliance for these policies.
On our part as citizens and digital users, we must develop media literacy skills not just in identifying disinformation, but also in detecting and dealing with trolls. We must also hold ourselves accountable for what we say online, and not just how we say it. After all, the basic rights we exercise as a community—such as the rights to privacy, expression, and freedom from discrimination—must also be exercised in the digital space.
As we walk in synodality with our country and the Church, our mission of to evangelize and heal the world for Christ continues to be a daily calling for humanity. Even as AI capabilities grow exponentially each year, we must not consider it smarter than us. AI cannot discern God’s voice nor understand the mysteries of our faith. Nor can it replicate human witnessing and discernment, generate emotional integrity, nor be superior to theological integrity. Storytelling, the most ancient and powerful form of communication, is still what converts the heart in the digital age.
That’s why we as faith communicators have the ethical mandate to share Christ to the world through messaging with spiritual value. We must discern our use of amoral systems such as AI and social media algorithms, and center our actions on communicating with utmost compassion, responsibility, and integrity. Our digital voice must echo the Church’s deepest truths, which rest in a personal relationship with our God.
Next time you open your social media, don’t just scroll, but serve. Don’t just post, but proclaim. Don’t just influence your audience, but inspire others to turn to Christ.
The Gospel deserves nothing less.