Leo Leads on Artificial Intelligence: Wisdom, Challenge, Women & Other Takeaways from Magnifica Humanitas

Artificial intelligence cannot and will not do better than St. Francis of Assisi. This was unsurprisingly confirmed at a Vatican press conference this morning marking the release of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.   

This morning’s presentation at Paul VI Hall was remarkable as it welcomed a spokesman of one of the leading artificial intelligence companies to give his feedback. Right from the start, Canadian Chris Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, cautioned against the danger of human pride, speaking from a position of gratitude.

This is the Church at her best engagement with the culture: Making Church teaching clear, leading as a guide to the more confusing, complicated, all-consuming challenges of the moment.  

There are a number of items that are being highlighted this morning from the document:  

Pope Leo XIV apologized for the Church’s slowness in condemning human slavery. This is critical as a matter of truth and justice in reality and history. And it cannot be overplayed that the Church is warning about what we are succumbing to already with new technologies that are, in some ways, smarter than we are.  

Here’s a snapshot of some of the slavery text in Magnifica Humanitas:

The fight against new forms of slavery is a decisive test for the ethical discernment of AI and digital transformation. In continuity with the tradition inaugurated by Leo XIII, the Church renews her firm condemnation of all forms of slavery, trafficking and the commodification of persons. She likewise highlights the urgent need for reflection and action that keep the inalienable dignity of every human being and the common good, as both the focus and goal of society, as well as the guiding criteria for every personal, social and political choice. Without this ethical and humanizing reflection, the growing power of digital systems could lead us toward new atrocities that are no less shameful than those of the past that we now deplore, while we continue to present ourselves as “advanced” and “civilized” societies.

It continues: 

175. Human trafficking must be recognized as a contemporary form of slavery and a grave violation of human dignity. Failing to respond firmly, or tolerating these practices in any way, is in some way to become complicit in today’s sins, which are akin to those of the past when slavery was being concealed and justified. [173] 

176. In the development of her doctrine, the Church has gradually come to a deeper awareness of the gravity of these issues. 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.” [174] It was only in the nineteenth century that a formal, absolute and universal condemnation of slavery was clearly articulated, notably under Pope Leo XIII. [175] 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. [176] 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 for pardon. 

177. This is why the memory of past complicity and blindness in the face of the injustice of slavery becomes a call to vigilance. What we have learned must be translated into discernment and responsibility in the present. If we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith, it falls to us today to denounce, clearly and firmly, trafficking in its many forms and, together with all who are committed to this cause, to support concrete efforts of prevention, protection, liberation and rehabilitation.

178. Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. 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. Those who control the health data of entire peoples — often collected under the pretext of aid, research or innovation — possess a structural leverage over the future, for they can shape needs and markets. They can also decide, before others, to whom medicines, investments and protections will be allocated. Here lies one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time: to ensure that shared knowledge becomes a true common good rather than an instrument of dominance. This requires restoring to individuals not only the data that describes them, but also the ability to decide how it is used, by whom and for whose benefit. Otherwise, the digital age will not be post-colonial, but colonial in another form. 

179. New forms of slavery are fueled by economic chains and digital infrastructures. Therefore, action is required on several fronts. First, the supply chains that underpin the technological industry and the digital economy need to become more transparent, so that no competitive advantage is built upon hidden exploitation. Second, companies and investors need to adopt clear criteria for preventive ethical verification (due diligence), placing among their priorities the protection of workers, the fight against forced labor and the assessment of the social impact of data-driven business models. Furthermore, digital platforms must cooperate responsibly with authorities and civil society to prevent communication, payment and profiling tools from becoming channels for the recruitment and control of victims. When such efforts converge, the digital environment can be transformed from a space of exploitation into one of protection, prevention and the promotion of human dignity. 

Nothing of this is new. Nor was what I’m about to quote from — quite clearly relevant to today’s encyclical release. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI handed me a letter to women throughout the world. It was a repeat message, from the closing of the Second Vatican Council, to women. It says, in part:

Our technology runs the risk of becoming inhuman. Reconcile men with life and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back the hand of man who, in a moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization.

Perhaps the presence of Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought & Practice at Durham University in England underscores this: The Church cannot be mother without women.  

And, today, by the way, is the relatively new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. We can never emphasize Christ’s mother enough in our understanding of the Church and ourselves.

In the same spirit, I rather like veteran Vatican journalist Delia Gallagher’s social-media summation of the document at its release this morning:  

The release of Magnifica Humanitas was, also, of course, the first encyclical from the first pope born in the United States – a matter of some home country pride. (Chicago may be more obnoxious on this point; the world should give thanks he didn’t hail from New York – we’d be insufferable.) 

Yesterday was the great feast of Pentecost. It’s a feast that gets downplayed to our detriment. In this light, the timing of today’s Magnifica Humanitas is not to be missed. The most important part of the encyclical, I believe, is this:  

With the same faith as Mary, let us become “weavers of hope” in our world, sharing who we are and what we have, so that the presence of Jesus may grow among us and his Kingdom take shape. In the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives. Indeed, the Lord continues to make all things new and offers every era the possibility of becoming part of salvation history in the light of the Incarnation. I entrust our desire to the Mother of Christ, to the Woman of the Magnificat, that she may guide our steps through this time of change and preserve in each of us true faith in the Gospel, so that we may bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made his dwelling. 

Yes, this, again, is what the Church believes about women. We are indispensable to the peace of the world and the redemption of men, because God chose Mary to be indispensable to salvation history. And so it is with the AI question. Listen to your mother – I can think of a triune approach to that, come to think of it. Always in the light of the Trinity.  

In some of my lighter “live tweeting” this morning on X, I noted that the Vatican conference this morning confirmed that AI will not be replacing the Trinity. Light, and yet, also everything.  

Also, I would be remiss on National Review Online — where geek culture has been known to have a place — to fail to note that the first American boy made pope quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien in his first encyclical. This is the relevant paragraph:

The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”[187]The civilization of love 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.

I’ll also note that he cites Dorothy Day — a New Yorker who, to borrow a phrase, is not yet a canonized saint, but “makes me want to be one” — as a contributor “to making history more humane.” There’s nothing artificial about that mission of love.