AI Must Serve Humanity, Not Dominate It, Says Pope Leo XIV's Encyclical

Pope Leo XIV greets a family in Rome. (Photo by Vatican Media)

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"Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity." However, "technology is never neutral" because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it, Pope Leo XIV highlights in his first encyclical after one year of his pontificate.

Pope Leo XIV's 245-paragraph Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, released on May 25, urges scrutiny of artificial intelligence so that it respects human dignity, ensures equality and calls for accountability of those in the business.

In writing about new forms of slavery, Pope Leo XIV also asks for pardon for the Catholic Church's complicity in slavery, a historic first for the Church.

"It is true that past events cannot be judged anachronistically, as though the moral criteria that matured over time had always been available. Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the Church came to denounce the scourge of slavery.

"In antiquity and the Middle Ages, many individuals and even ecclesiastical institutions had slaves. Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to requests from Sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, the enslavement of 'infidels'. It was only in the nineteenth century that a formal, absolute and universal condemnation of slavery was clearly articulated, notably under Pope Leo XIII. This development offers a clear example of the Church's growth in understanding the perennial truths of Revelation that she safeguards.

"Although there was not always consistency in practice -- given that slavery was long tolerated before being unequivocally condemned -- there has been a continuous affirmation throughout history of the dignity of every human being, created in the image of God, even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.

"This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached. It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord. For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask pardon."

Pope Leo says that "past complicity and blindness in the face of injustice of slavery becomes a call for vigilance", discernment and responsibility in the present".

He refers to the new "rare earths" of power, or the appropriation of data, and calls for more transparency.

"Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new "rare earths" of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide investment strategies, anticipate crises and, above all, determine who and what is deemed to matter. . . . Here lies one of the most urgent challenges of our time: to ensure that shared knowledge becomes a true common good rather than an instrument of dominance."

Civilization of Love

"The civilization of love (a term coined by Pope Paul VI during the Cold War) will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization.

"For this reason, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect on some aspects of how we, each in our own way, can cooperate in building the civilization of love. Without presuming to exhaust this theme, I would like to propose five paths toward daily and public responsibility: the need to disarm words, building peace through justice, adopting the perspective of victims, cultivating a healthy realism, and reviving dialogue and multilateralism."

The pope argues against "watching and waiting, observing from afar and merely hoping for the best" during this "rapid phase of transition" of new technologies. He says that regulatory tools should be established to "uphold justice and curb the distorting effects of technological power". However, he adds that it would take more than regulation to establish equality among people, indeed, including equality of women. He recognizes that injustices "do not arise from the wrong choices of individuals, but also from structures, mechanisms and economic and cultural systems that produce inequality almost automatically.

"As Pope Francis warned, we must realistically ask ourselves who holds this power today and how they use it: 'It must also be recognized that nuclear energy, biotechnology, information technology, knowledge of our own DNA, and many other abilities which we have acquired . . . have given those with knowledge, and especially the economic resources to use them, an impressive dominance over the whole of humanity and the entire world.'

"In the past, it was largely up to the State to guide and direct innovation. Today, however, the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments.

"Technological power thus takes on an unprecedented, predominantly "private" aspect, which makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good."

Humanity at a Crossroads

"Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build a city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world.

"Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is "only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear". In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness."

Pope Leo XIII and Salazar

The papal leader repeatedly acknowledges Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum (New Things) of 1891. Considered a foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching, it addresses the condition of the working classes, “for the most part, in a situation of misfortune and of undeserved misery”. It supports the rights of labor to form unions, and rejected both socialism and unrestrained capitalism while affirming the right to private property.

"When some objected that the Church should not waste energy on worldly matters, but instead focus on communicating the message of eternal life, Leo XIII responded with realism and wisdom, saying that the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people."

Interestingly, Portuguese strongman, António de Oliveira Salazar, based the nearly 50-year dictatorial Estado Novo on two encyclicals, one of which was Rerum Novarum. From these encyclicals, the Catholic seemed to have adopted only corporatism and a rejection of capitalism, communism and socialism.

"While Leo XIII spoke in his time of "new things" (rerum novarum), today we cannot limit ourselves simply to repeating his insightful teachings. Instead, we must ask God for the wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time, particularly technological advances. In recent years, it has become increasingly evident how rapidly and profoundly digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are transforming our world."

"To Disarm"

The term "to disarm" is close to my heart".

"Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of 'armed' competition, which today is not limited to the military context, but is also an economic and cognitive phenomenon. This entails a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance.

"To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern. To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity. It means freeing technology from monopolistic control and opening it to discussion and debate, therefore making it human-friendly and restoring it to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life."

Humanity Flourishes Through Limitations

"Our relationship with life seems to be in crisis today. Everything that appears as a 'limit' -- incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, vulnerability -- tends to be seen primarily as a defect to be corrected, rather than as a reality through which our humanity matures and opens itself to relationship.

"And yet we must remember that humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them. . . . While it is right to strive to alleviate suffering that marks human life, it is also wise to acknowledge our fundamental finitude. . . . "

Pope Leo XIV touches on the limitation of "the current metrics of development -- which for more than eighty years have been tied to the concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- since these metrics almost systematically neglect aspects essential to the overall well-being of people and the environment".

He also discusses the central role of schools, the "normalization of war" and "a disconcerting loss of historical memory, as first-hand accounts of the Holocaust and the two World Wars are disappearing".

"We must, then, avoid the "Babel syndrome", namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language -- even a digital one -- can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance. The risk of dehumanization -- of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means -- is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise."

Encyclicals Are Open Letters

Encyclicals are papal letters originally circulated to all bishops of the Roman Catholic Church but, today, are intended for a global audience. They help to elucidate the teachings of sacred scripture and Catholic tradition. They are not infallible statements.