Pope Leo XIV launches a global appeal to “disarm Artificial Intelligence.”
This is the core of “Magnifica Humanitas,” the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, presented today in the Vatican in the presence of the Pope himself in the Synod Hall, an unprecedented event in the recent history of the Holy See.
The document addresses the risks of domination, exclusion, and dehumanization linked to the use of artificial intelligence, reaffirming the centrality of human dignity. With his first encyclical, the pontiff calls on governments, tech companies, and civil society to take responsibility for guiding the development of new technologies toward the common good.
Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, one of the leading AI development companies, was also present at the encyclical’s presentation, in a symbolic gesture of dialogue between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds, comments the New York Times.
According to Politico, “the encyclical represents the most incisive intervention by the Catholic Church in the global debate on how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of war, work, and society,” emphasizing that “The text risks putting the Vatican on a collision course with governments rushing to deploy AI as a strategic weapon.”
All the details.
THE ROLE OF HUMANITY
“A society that guarantees employment to only a small part of the population, despite having a high level of technological development, risks exposing many to forced inactivity,” the Pope declared, explaining that the encyclical arises from a long process of listening to scientists, engineers, policymakers, educators, and people affected by the effects of new technologies.
In the text, the Pontiff emphasizes that in the age of artificial intelligence “where human dignity risks being overshadowed by new forms of dehumanization, we have the urgent duty to remain deeply human, lovingly preserving that magnificent humanity that has been given to us and shown in its fullness in Christ, and that no machine will ever be able to replace in its splendor.”
The encyclical also calls for educating new generations to believe that the evolution of technologies does not follow an inevitable path but can be guided by personal and collective responsibility.
TECHNOLOGY IS NOT NEUTRAL
According to Leo XIV, scientific discoveries represent a talent entrusted to humanity to be cultivated. “Technology is not in itself a solution to humanity’s problems, nor is it inherently evil; but, concretely, it is not neutral, because it takes on the face of those who conceive it, finance it, regulate it, and use it.”
THE RISKS BEHIND ALGORITHMS
Among the main concerns expressed by the Pope are the risk of dehumanization, the marginalization of the weakest, and the reduction of the person to a mere digital profile.
“No calculation system, however sophisticated, generates a heart that gives itself, nor a conscience that discerns good. Even when machines excel in efficiency, the center of history remains a human face that asks to be seen. This human face is the fullness toward which history walks.”
THE CONCENTRATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL POWER
The encyclical also addresses the issue of the concentration of power in the hands of major economic and technological players. The spread of artificial intelligence, the Pope observes, is happening through platforms, infrastructures, data, and computing power whose control “is not the prerogative of states, but of large economic and technological actors who, in fact, set the conditions of access, the rules of visibility, and the very possibilities of participation.”
“When power of such magnitude is concentrated in few hands, it tends to become opaque and evade public control, increasing the risk of distorted development that generates new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations, and inequalities.”
Faced with this “concentration of power,” Leo XIV reiterates the need to ensure that the power of digital infrastructures and algorithms truly promotes participation, responsibility, and equitable access to opportunities.
POPE LEO XIV’S APPEAL TO AI DEVELOPERS
In the final part of the encyclical, the Pontiff directly addresses those who develop artificial intelligence systems, urging them to carefully consider the values embedded in their projects.
Developers, the Pope states, are called to seriously treat the principles guiding their technologies, “with transparency, with responsibility towards the communities involved, and with attention to verifying that what is being ‘cultivated’ is truly a good.”
THE CONDEMNATION OF AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS
“No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” wrote Pope Leo XIV, insisting that artificial intelligence must be subject to the strictest ethical constraints and responsibility in the military field. “Any technology that facilitates attacks without seeing the faces of human beings lowers the moral threshold of conflict,” according to the pontiff.
WHAT THE CO-FOUNDER OF ANTHROPIC SAID
A first response to the appeal launched by the pontiff came today in the Synod Hall, when Anthropic’s co-founder, Olah, thanked Leo XIII for addressing the problems raised by new disruptive technologies. He stated that companies like his are under strong commercial pressures and require external oversight.
“Every cutting-edge artificial intelligence lab, including Anthropic, operates within a set of incentives and constraints that sometimes may conflict with doing the right thing,” Olah said.
Moreover, Anthropic has refused to authorize the use of its AI-based chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or for autonomous weapons, due to concerns related to safety and ethics.
