Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) has unveiled a world-first Catholic-focused AI chatbot to support teachers and integrate religious values into education.
The AI, known as the Catholic CoPilot, is already in use across 146 schools and saves teachers up to 10 hours a week by automating lesson planning, marking and administrative tasks.
The chatbot was built using Microsoft technology and is grounded in Catholic theology. Leigh Williams, BCE Information and Technology Executive, said it is tailored to align with Catholic teaching and the curriculum.
“It will generate an answer based only on the things that you pointed it to, so we pointed it to our own curriculum, our own Catholic theology and Catholic teaching principles” Williams explained.
Unlike other generative AI tools, Catholic CoPilot avoids general internet sources, ensuring responses are specific and aligned with Catholic values.
BCE is also the first K-12 education system to sign the Vatican’s Rome Call on AI Ethics, which promotes ethical AI usage in line with human dignity and Catholic teachings.
Faith-Integrated Curriculum
Williams emphasised that the chatbot doesn’t promote a single religious perspective but integrates Catholic viewpoints within broader educational standards. For instance, history lessons explore events through a Catholic lens while legal studies incorporate Catholic perspectives on justice.
Ms Williams said teachers using the chatbot saved nearly 2 hours each day in administrative tasks and lesson planning. “It can be used for everything from planning their lessons, writing and curriculum content’’ she said.
Catholic CoPilot could be used to develop assignment marking rubrics and give students feedback. Teachers retain control, with all AI-generated content reviewed before use. “Nothing goes back to the student without the teacher actually reviewing it first’’ Willams said.
Ms Williams said the AI chatbot might also be used to write end-of-year report cards.
“If you tell it to give you a summary of how the student has performed, in less than a paragraph, it will be able to do that. Copilot is unbiased in the sense it’s looking only at that student’s data … so it’s actually based on real evidence.’’
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