Pope Leo XIV has just issued his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which states the Catholic Church's position on the threats posed by AI. The subject Leo chose is highly symbolic. Pope Leo XIII is best remembered for his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which sought to reconcile the Church with modernity and the arrival of rapid industrialisation. Like his namesake, Leo XIV sees the ethical questions raised by technological change as a central concern.
Magnifica Humanitas presents AI as a profound new challenge to human dignity, justice, and economic security. To confront these challenges, Leo invokes foundational Catholic social teachings about the importance of human dignity and human rights, the common good, and the principles of universality, subsidiarity, solidarity, and social justice. Though he acknowledges that AI can be a "valuable tool", he warns that it must be "disarmed … freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, or death."
