Mark Baciak
Role(s): Vatican AI Consultant, CEO of EKTA (Sovereign AI Company), Strategic Advisor, Catholic Church Technology Specialist Last interaction: November 21, 2025 - Neural Fabric Exit, Vatican AI Strategy, and Educational Revolution Discussion
Contact Information
- Location: Seattle, Washington (primary residence)
- Additional Property: Compound/ranch property (separate from Seattle house)
- Status: Recently exited previous startup
Professional Background
- Former startup founder with successful exit (Neural Fabric acquired by Cisco, September 2025)
- Founder and CEO of EKTA (E-K-T-A.AI) - sovereign AI company launched September 2025
- Vatican technology consultant and AI specialist
- Deep connections within Catholic Church hierarchy
- AI model development expertise, particularly domain-specific applications
- Experience building foundational AI models for Vatican, governments, and Fortune 500 companies
- Currently developing meta-AI model that creates domain-specific AI models
- Rejected $8 million signing bonus offer from Cisco to maintain independence
Vatican & Catholic Church Connections
High-Level Church Access
Archbishop Timothy Dolan Relationship: Direct access to one of the most powerful figures in American Catholicism:
"Archbishop Dolan also one one drove the rest of the vote for the American... he's very powerful. So so so he he's like the shadow pope... he was the operating behind the scenes... when you now things won kind of crazy and the church in America, that North America, and specifically United States ended a billion dollars, um, you know, Trump basically gave him over a billion dollars."
Vatican Operations Understanding: Extensive knowledge of Vatican internal politics and financial operations:
"I got basically tell them what's going on... there were some topics that we didn't you know, actually topics we didn't lean into heavily because you know, to do that a person. sensitivity makes sense"
Vatican AI Project Experience
Thompson Collaboration: Recent extensive debrief with Vatican contact:
"I actually had a call that Thompson yesterday. It was actually a pretty long call... I got caught up in all the happenings for the last six months at the Vatican"
Crisis Management Success: Successfully navigated Vatican political challenges:
"I saved his ass... I gave them all the receipts, so I made the uh I made the conversation uh very hard to adore. It's like, hey, here's weight and wrong, and this is the right thing to do."
Planned Vatican Visit: Strategic trip scheduled for June 21st, 2025:
"he kind of wants to be out there for the 21st... spend a couple of days at the Academy and then I' cardinals and then talk too"
Pope Leo Era Developments: Vatican AI work continuing under new papal leadership:
"Castle Gandolfo... that's now being resurrected, by the way, under Pope Leo"
World Economic Forum Collaboration: Major upcoming presentation:
"I'll be co-presenting with the Vatican at the World Economic Forum in January"
Bloomberg House Historic Visit: First-ever Vatican presentation:
"we're going to have the Vatican then go to Bloomberg House for the first time ever, and then we're all, all of us are going to present to the world on AI together"
Current Vatican Digitization: Active archive digitization project:
"right now we're actually digitizing the entire Vatican archives as we speak"
AI Technology Expertise
Domain-Specific AI Specialization
Sacred Matrices Concept: Developing AI platform for religious organizations:
"Sacred Matrices... established in 2025 by AI pioneers with a unique track record building foundational models for the Vatican OC governments and leading fortune 500 companies, master the creation of deeply domain specific, linguistically nuanced, culturally attuned AI"
Universal Stack Philosophy: Recognition that AI architecture transcends specific domains:
"when you look at the stack, it's not, you know, the AI stack on developing, it just applied to multiple domains or verticals... The stack itself is agnostic to what is going to be working in, because that's just how GAI works"
Meta-AI Model Development
Revolutionary Approach: Building AI that creates other domain-specific AI models:
"what I've been working on is making an AI model that makes domain specific AI models... I take in and test it now and actually works pretty well"
Market Timing Recognition: Understanding current demand for specialized AI solutions:
"now up where I was was two years ago, with respect to the domain specific... And now for the first time, people are now asking for it"
Technical Validation: MIT research confirming Mark's earlier innovations:
"then MIT publishes a paper, like, late last week, and basically they were saying that you need to do neural symbolic training if you want your model to have any type of efficacy"
EKTA - Sovereign AI Company (September 2025)
Company Formation and Structure
New Venture Launch: EKTA (E-K-T-A.AI) launched September 2025:
"I started EKTA, so E-K-T-A dot AI, E-K-T-A-I"
Sovereign AI Focus: Building AI models specifically for governments:
"Sovereign AI, yeah" - building models for governments
International Structure: Swiss entity for IP protection:
"we're about ready to set up a Swiss entity, and all the IP and all the patents are going to be held in Switzerland"
Funding and Team
Seed Funding Round: Major funding in progress:
"we're doing a $20 million raise for 16.7% of the company"
Self-Funded Start: Founders provided initial capital:
"Tommy and I both jointly threw in funds and pre-seeded it"
Tom Slushe Integration: Vatican collaborator joins as chief commercialization officer:
"Tom's now joined ECTA as a chief commercialization officer"
Major Contract Pipeline
Swiss Government Contract: Likely winner for national AI contract:
"we just got word from Accenture that it looks like we're going to win the contract for all of Swiss government AI"
US Government Fast-Track: Accelerated approval for federal contracts:
"NASA, and also with the intelligence community to fast track both GSA's Schedule 70 as well as the soup contract"
Middle Eastern Expansion: Qatar digitization opportunity:
"Qatar reached out to us and wanted us to actually take over and digitize their entire Middle Eastern archives as well"
Bloomberg Partnership Development
Initial Skepticism: Bloomberg team's challenging opening position:
"we have 400 to 500 Ph.D.s working on AI. There's nothing that you're going to say that's going to impress us"
Technical Validation: Mark's architecture presentation overcame resistance and gained respect
Strategic Partnership: Bloomberg Series A funding integration:
"they're raising their Series A, and then we had them double the Series A to write us into the contract because that doubling, all that money is going to go to us"
Credit-Sharing Strategy: Approach that builds trust and partnership:
"we're not here to steal the glory. I said, look what we did with Longbeard... They got complete credit for it"
Strategic Business Vision
Startup Partnership Goals
Founding Team Ambition: Clear vision for next venture:
"I know I'm not going to make a billion dollars consulting for a school system... what I wanted to do, that's that's what I want to do. And then, you know, I just think about like the the amount of money that like these Johnny Ive type hype trained stuff is is make like raising"
Competition Recognition: Targeting major AI companies:
"I'm looking at no less than something that is seen widely as, you know, a competitor or that kind of thing to to that sort of thing"
Business Model Philosophy
Consumer Product Strategy: Understanding path to research funding independence:
"The only way that you have to be not reliant on government grants and stuff is that you have like a fucking huge consumer products and whatever or multiple, right?"
Control Requirements: Lessons learned from previous ventures:
"You need complete control of the company like a dictator... I didn't control the business let other people kind of dictate what the business side of the equation"
Religious Technology Market Analysis
Multi-Faith Opportunity Recognition
G42 Connection: UAE AI company interest in religious AI applications:
"there's this guy from the G 42, uh, who basically then approached a friend of mine... they were basically lamenting the fact that they need someone to help in and come in and help to solve their their AI problem. Yeah, because they basically blew $200 million with dump to show for it"
Universal Religious Stack: Vision for cross-denominational technology platform:
"it's basically tribe as a service, right? Like it's it's basically tribal tribal success and growth, like in flourishing as a service, right?... what what what religions are, is there like groups of people that want to succeed together"
Funding Reality Assessment
Religious Market Limitations: Honest evaluation of faith-based funding:
"there's no religion that really has money or gives money per se. You had to go through the the externals... they're all looking for money at the same time anyway"
Strategic Pivot Approach: Using commercial success to fund mission-oriented work:
"you should get the money first so you have money to to so you have runway to be more mission oriented, right?"
Relationship with Gary Sheng
Strategic Partnership Interest
Dr. Alexander Introduction Receptivity: Open to meeting Gary's key collaborator:
Gary: "I'll send I'll send you more information about him, but I think that, like, he I imagine that he isn't one of the missing ingredients to this this like almost agency that you want to create"
Super General Intelligence Recognition: Positioning Gary and Dr. Alexander as exceptional talents:
"his his general intelligence is like, really, again, only you two you are the only two people that I would put in this like super general intelligence sort of category"
Collaboration Vision
AGI Partnership Model: Viewing Gary and Dr. Alexander as combined intelligence:
"I just feel like you guys are AGI... my simple mental model is that you guys can figure out whatever, and it's just a matter of, you know, that AGI needs needs its juice, right? It needs money, right?"
LDS & Mormon Connections
Travis Oliphant Access
NumPy Creator Connection: Through Gary's relationship with Travis Oliphant:
Gary: "one of my he's now like a close upset he's an emerging close friend and mentor type figure, Travis Oliphant, who um who, uh created numpy and scipy... him, um, alongside the Sneaker family would allow us to get access to the head of the LDS"
Heather Staker Educational Projects
Alpha Schools Connection: Through Gary's Alpha Schools involvement:
Gary: "the a Heather Staker, she's involved in this project I'm consulting for. She's um the alpha Schools project... she wants me to help start advanced schools um and possibly really advance schools in in in Salt Lake"
Multi-Denominational Strategy: Recognition of cross-faith technology opportunity:
Gary: "all these denominations want to basically show off who's the actual real denomination, right? So I think, like, I almost kind of envision like an AI as a service type thing"
Assessment of Other Collaborators
Matthew (Magisteria) Analysis
Resource Constraints Recognition: Understanding of funding limitations:
"he doesn't have enough financial resources to do what he needs to do... his his round that he got it's almost nothing... over a third of it disappears it goes directly into the SMA company to do the scanners for the archives"
Scale Mismatch: Assessment of funding inadequacy:
"$600,000 on the scanners... I would have scaled it out a little bit differently... a half million dollars is not that big of a deal for tech. No, it's tiny"
John Devidos Issues and Vindication
Negative Value Assessment: Critical evaluation of past working relationship:
"I just brought negative value to me, right? I just felt like, you know, I was like, what what is this guy's role?... And it was actually just negative energy that I felt"
Communication Redundancy: Recognition of inefficient role definition:
"I didn't feel like he was, you know, relaying anything to me that you weren't already relaying to me"
Cap Table Deception Revealed (September 2025): Major misrepresentation exposed during Neural Fabric acquisition:
"So John Devidos... He had told me that he was only given 3% of the shares of neural fabric, right? And then I get to see the true cap table... And then it turns out that he was given 30%"
Pattern of Deception: Systematic lying to multiple parties:
"So how could you lie to somebody like, and he not only lied to me, but he also lied to everybody else"
Departure from Neural Fabric: Forced exit and share forfeiture:
"Yeah, so he basically quit neural fabric, had to give back his shares"
White House Meeting Pattern: Attempted leveraging followed by last-minute cancellation:
"at the last second, he's like, oh, I'm not doing it. I'm canceling it all. He's like, they're all captured. They're no good"
Gary's Early Warning Vindicated: Recognition of Gary's accurate assessment:
"you were one of the first people who actually gave me the heads up on Devados, by the way"
Current Strategic Focus (September 2025)
EKTA Growth Priorities
- Seed Funding Completion: $20 million raise for 16.7% equity stake
- Government Contract Execution: Swiss government AI, US federal contracts
- Vatican AI Projects: Archive digitization and AI development under Pope Leo
- World Economic Forum Preparation: January 2026 Vatican co-presentation
Partnership Development
- Bloomberg Integration: Strategic partnership through Series A doubling
- Tom Slushe Network: Leveraging Vatican fundraising network for commercial growth
- Gary Sheng Collaboration: Renewed partnership for Vatican and Christian technology initiatives
Global Market Position
- Swiss Entity Formation: IP protection and sovereign AI positioning
- Middle Eastern Expansion: Qatar archive digitization opportunities
- Vatican Global Platform: Continued institutional Catholic Church technology leadership
Investment Philosophy Evolution
Controlled Growth with Scale: Maintaining control while accessing significant capital:
"we're doing a $20 million raise for 16.7% of the company" - achieving scale while retaining control
Strategic Positioning and Networks
Global Religious Technology Access
- Catholic Church: Direct access through Archbishop Dolan and Vatican connections
- LDS/Mormon: Access through Travis Oliphant and Heather Staker relationships
- Islamic: G42 connections for Muslim market applications
- Multi-Faith Platform: Vision for universal religious technology stack
Government and Enterprise Experience
- Previous work building AI models for government agencies
- Fortune 500 company AI development experience
- Understanding of regulatory and security requirements for institutional clients
Interactions
- May 2024: Met Gary Sheng at Vatican City conference
- Second half 2024: Collaborated on major Vatican AI projects
- June 7, 2025: Strategic partnership discussion with Gary Sheng covering Vatican connections, Dr. Alexander introduction opportunity, LDS collaboration potential, Sacred Matrices development, and founding team partnership possibilities
- September 24, 2025: Business update call with Gary Sheng covering Neural Fabric acquisition by Cisco, EKTA launch, Vatican developments under Pope Leo, John Devidos vindication, Bloomberg partnership, and renewed collaboration opportunities
- October 23, 2025: Confidential call with Gary Sheng regarding Matthew Sanders (Magisteria/Longbeard) serious red flags including fraudulent user numbers (claiming 100M when actual is ~13,800), payment issues, and Cardinal Turkson's extremely negative assessment. Decision made to cut out Matthew as middleman and work directly with Vatican
- November 21, 2025: Major update call with Gary Sheng covering Neural Fabric acquisition completion (with cap table manipulation revelations), direct Vatican Academy of Sciences partnership, Pope Leo's radical technology agenda, upcoming Slovakia presentation on sovereign AI and educational transformation, takeover of Vatican archives program from Matthew Sanders, and RNC political platform development
Matthew Sanders (Magisteria/Longbeard) Investigation (October 2025)
Fraud Discovery
User Count Misrepresentation: Matthew claimed 100 million users for Magisteria when actual data shows only 13,800 unique users:
"The unique user account was less than 13,000... unless they had a several hundred thousand percent growth in the last 90 days, that's not reality"
Material Defects in Fundraising: Multiple instances of factually incorrect statements during $100M Series A raise:
"When you're doing a raise, if you give out factually or material deficient information is considered fraud and a felony... you cannot lie to your investors"
Business Integrity Issues
Payment Breach: Failed to pay agreed $10,000 invoice for work completed:
"As of this morning, we were told that they're not paying the invoice because we don't have a master service agreement"
Intellectual Property Concerns: Structuring Vatican digitization to own digital archives rather than Vatican owning them:
"He's doing it so that he actually owns the digital archives, not the Vatican"
Cardinal Turkson's Assessment
Seven Years of Observation: Cardinal Turkson's brutal evaluation after working with Matthew for 7-8 years:
"He's a great guy who talks, but doesn't know how to do... he's good for organizing conferences that don't do anything"
Church Exploitation: Turkson's assessment of Matthew's relationship with Vatican:
"He prostitutes out the church for his company... all it does is cost the church money and nothing gets given back"
Exclusion from Sovereign AI Initiative: Cardinal Turkson explicitly excluded Matthew from Pope Leo's AI strategy:
"Matthew cannot be a part of this zero"
Conference Dynamics Changes
Rome Conference Pivot: Mark changed flight plans to minimize conference attendance:
"I get there on the 7th in the morning, and then I'm going to drop into the conference right after lunch. I'm only going to spend a couple hours at the conference"
Direct Vatican Meetings: Strategy to work directly with Vatican officials:
"My meetings at the Vatican will be with the power players at the Vatican who make these decisions. I won't be at the father level. I'm going to be at the cardinal slash pope level"
November 2025 Developments
Neural Fabric Acquisition Completion
Cap Table Manipulation Exposed: Discovery of systematic share manipulation:
"There was like three and a half million shares that were unaccounted for... at the last minute, literally an hour or a day before the deal closes, they basically put in an amendment"
Devidos' Full Deception Scale: John Devidos had 36% of shares (not 3% as claimed), was supposed to distribute but kept all for himself
Exit Terms: Mark walked away with cash but significantly less equity than deserved, choosing dignity over fighting:
"I'd rather walk off with dignity and hold my head high... at least I'm doing the right thing"
Vatican Academy of Sciences Transformation
From Tourist Attraction to Holy Warriors: Mark's confrontation with Academy leadership catalyzed radical transformation:
"When's the last time you think the Academy of Sciences was even relevant? Could you name the century?"
Technology Leadership Return: Academy now preparing evaluation benchmarks, hosting science, and engaging across technology ecosystem:
"They went from way over here, and I thought I could push them to here to then way the fuck over here, and they are fucking holy warriors now"
Pope Leo's Radical Technology Agenda
More Radical Than Francis: Leo proving unexpectedly aggressive on technology adoption:
"Everyone thought Francis was radical. After what I'm seeing, I think Leo is way more radical"
Action Over Politics: Unlike Francis who was "afraid to actually do things," Leo has "no compunction whatsoever to tread on people's feet"
Educational Revolution Vision
Factory Model Critique: Mark writing Vatican speeches attacking industrial education model:
"Various systems of mass education that spread across the world in the wake of the Industrial Revolution were deliberately modeled on the factory itself... This factory model remains the dominant architecture of schooling in 2025"
Human-Centered Alternative: Advocating for critical thinking and dialogue-based education inspired by Danish folk schools and Highlander Folk School (where MLK and Rosa Parks trained)
Political Platform Development - "Charlie Kirk Model"
Arbiter of Truth Platform: Building AI system for political accountability:
"If you can argue things on its merits, if you can come with receipts... Here's what the numbers say, here's what the claim sets are"
Real-Time Congressional Monitoring: AI to audit politicians against their promises:
"Using AI to audit, to monitor and see what they're doing in Congress and see if the laws that they're supporting... are contradicting what they have ever said"
RNC Two-Year Exclusive: Platform being developed with exclusive RNC access for US market
EKTA Strategic Expansion
Major Contract Pipeline:
- Roku returning as major customer (meeting with CEO Anthony scheduled)
- RNC political platform with two-year US exclusive
- White House engagements through RNC connections
- Medical differential diagnosis AI demonstrations
Team Cohesion: Operating with Tom Slushe and Tondi as core team:
"There's no games. There's no politics. We work cohesively as a team"
Notes
November 2025 Update: Mark Baciak has successfully completed the Neural Fabric exit despite significant cap table manipulation, turning full attention to EKTA and direct Vatican collaboration. The Vatican Academy of Sciences has undergone radical transformation under Mark's influence, evolving from "tourist attraction" to active technology leadership. Pope Leo's unexpectedly aggressive technology agenda creates unprecedented opportunity for Catholic Church AI leadership.
Mark's vision extends beyond technical implementation to fundamental societal transformation - from education reform attacking 150+ years of factory-model schooling to political accountability platforms that could revolutionize democratic participation. His upcoming Slovakia presentation on Monday will launch the Vatican's new sovereign AI and education initiative.
The combination of completed Neural Fabric exit (despite getting "screwed" on equity), EKTA's momentum with major contracts, and direct Vatican Academy partnership positions Mark as the key architect of Catholic Church technology transformation under Pope Leo.
October 2025 Update: Mark Baciak has discovered serious fraud and integrity issues with Matthew Sanders, leading to a complete strategic pivot to work directly with Vatican officials. Cardinal Turkson's damning assessment after 7-8 years of observation, combined with evidence of user count fraud (100M claimed vs 13,800 actual) and payment breaches, has resulted in Mark cutting Matthew out as a middleman. This positions Mark for direct Vatican collaboration on Pope Leo's sovereign AI initiative.
September 2025 Update: Mark Baciak has successfully transitioned from Neural Fabric's acquisition by Cisco to launching EKTA, his sovereign AI company, positioning himself at the intersection of government AI contracts and Vatican technology development. The vindication of Gary Sheng's early warnings about John Devidos has strengthened their relationship and established Gary as a trusted advisor.
Mark represents a sophisticated blend of technical AI expertise and institutional religious access that positions him as a strategic asset for faith-based technology initiatives. His successful navigation of Vatican politics under both Pope Francis and Pope Leo, combined with his startup experience, creates unique credibility for religious technology applications.
The EKTA launch demonstrates Mark's evolution from consultant to major technology company founder, with a $20 million funding round and major government contracts pending. His partnership with Tom Slushe brings Vatican fundraising expertise and high-net-worth Catholic networks to the commercial venture.
His assessment of the religious technology market as requiring external funding sources while providing universal platform opportunities demonstrates strategic thinking about scaling faith-based innovations. The combination of his Vatican connections, technical capabilities, and business experience makes him a valuable potential collaborator for Gary's educational and community development initiatives.
The rejection of Cisco's $8 million signing bonus offer to maintain independence shows commitment to building significant technology companies rather than accepting corporate roles. His approach to credit-sharing and behind-the-scenes operation builds trust with institutional partners while maintaining technical leadership.
Key Themes: Sovereign AI development, Vatican institutional partnerships, government contract execution, faith-based technology platforms, strategic partnership development, and global religious technology leadership.
Transcripts
| Transcript ID | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-21-mark-baciak-vatican-ai-strategy | 2025-11-21 | Vatican AI strategy discussion covering Neural Fabric exit, educational revolution, and political accountability platform development |
| 2025-10-23-mark-baciak-matthew-sanders-vatican-strategy | 2025-10-23 | Confidential call regarding serious concerns about Matthew Sanders (Magisteria/Longbeard) fraud and strategic pivot for Vatican AI initiatives |
| 2025-09-24-gary-sheng-mark-baciak-business-updates | 2025-09-24 | Business update call covering Neural Fabric acquisition by Cisco, EKTA launch, Vatican developments, and future collaboration opportunities |
| 2025-06-07-gary-sheng-mark-baciak-strategic-ai-partnership | 2025-06-07 | Strategic AI partnership discussion covering Vatican connections, Sacred Matrices development, and Dr. Alexander collaboration potential |