Magnifica Humanitas is Pope Leo’s AI Encyclical, which has shaken the tech giants with its urgent and timely message. Published in May, ‘On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,’ emphasises the dignity and rights of the individual in the age of rapid technological development, particularly AI.
Papal encyclicals provide analysis in the light of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church on relevant issues for the faithful. The document talks about how we preserve the wonder and glory of the human person, made in the image and likeness of God, in the age of AI. Our diversity is a richness and all we do must seek the common good of all people, especially those who are poor, vulnerable or marginalised. He talks of “building a city founded on the common good,” which is to be discerned by standards such as “the dignity of the human person, the universal destination of goods, the preferential option for the poor, care for our common home, and peace.”
Pope Leo clearly views AI as one of the key challenges of our times, but the encyclical is not all about technology. Rather it is about how we respond to the challenges that this technology brings to our world and how we live our lives, in the light of our faith, the Gospel and the history of Catholic teaching. It is a warning about allowing ourselves to build further inequality into our structures and systems, with economic and technological resources being concentrated in a few hands. Justice demands that we prevent the emergence of new forms of exclusion and deprivation of freedoms: individuals and peoples hindered or denied access to basic technologies, communities exposed to invasive surveillance and social groups penalised by opaque algorithms that perpetuate prejudice and discrimination.
He warns about misinformation and the deliberate raising of tensions, singling out the way we treat migrants as constituting a “litmus test for social justice today.” Too often migrants are being “forced to move due to poverty, violence, climate change, and environmental disasters,” he says. Too often they are scapegoats for problems in society.
Pope Leo says that the development and use of AI needs responsibility and discernment to ensure that it serves the interests of humanity as a whole. He also calls for regulating these technological developments in order to protect the environment. He condemns the exploitation of people for the digital economy including underpaid data labellers, child miners extracting rare-earth elements, and human trafficking victims. He warns too against placing the burden of our increased consumption on those who are poor and on future generations. The May encyclical is a reminder that working towards social justice is a key part of our faith: “For the Christian community, social justice is a concrete way of following Jesus and remaining faithful to the Gospel” #79.
He says that AI is not morally neutral and should only be viewed as a tool. We must be careful not to delegate our decision-making to something that cannot experience life or feel hope, joy, fear or pain. AI does not know compassion, mercy, forgiveness or hope of change. It is not just about how we use AI, but how AI is developed, and by whom, as it is has the possibility to shape our culture, our imagination, and therefore our lives.
He talks about “disarming” AI, meaning resisting “ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance.” At the end he strongly endorses the words from Mary’s “Magnificat” about deposing the rich.
Pope Leo elaborates on the term, “disarm.” 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. Not to leave it up to individual entrepreneurs and powerful billionaires to make decisions that affect all of us. The morality of the system must occur within a context of social justice, and must not be imposed “by a few.”
He also raises a red flag about ecology around the immense amount of water and energy that AI data centres demand. Communities have every right to resist, promoting the common good of all.
He calls for developers of AI to “embed values in their projects with due seriousness,” among which are “transparency, responsibility toward affected communities and careful attention to ensuring that what is being cultivated is a genuine good.” The Church will stand up for the human person and all God’s creation. What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating, and of protecting the opportunities for communities still to be able to participate and ask questions.
The benefits of our human creativity can and must reach all of us. We are asked to consider how we can move forward together and make the world better for everyone.
