Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Calls for “Preserving the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

There were strong indications of what one of his pontificates main focuses would be when Robert Prevost chose the name Leo for his new life as leader of the Catholic Church. He also mentioned artificial intelligence when addressing the crowd in St. Peter’s Square and the world via the various forms of communication we now have available. In May 1891, Pope Leo XIII released the encyclical Rerum novarum addressing the condition of the working class in the period of the Industrial Revolution. It discussed the rights of workers, owners, and the state.

On the 135th anniversary of that encyclical, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, entitled Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Peron on the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”

The co-founder of Anthropic, Chris Olah, was invited to speak at the presentation of the encyclical. In his talk, Mr. Olah raised some interesting issues, pointing out that “every frontier AI lab … operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometime conflict with doing the right thing.” He echoed the pope’s call for discernment and highlighted three questions that companies need to discern about and “where I think the Church’s voice is most needed.”  First is our duty to the global poor. Secondly is the need for moral imagination and ambition regarding human flourishing. Finally, the world has need for discernment on the nature of AI models.  

The reactions have been generally favorable with many being very enthusiastic about the pope’s words. The Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, is quoted in an interview with Vatican News as giving very high praise for the encyclical. He sees this encyclical as “a new lens to read the entire Social Doctrine of the Church.”

Following interviews with Church leaders in Africa, ACI Africa summed up the leadership’s  reactions as seeing the document as “a decisive intervention on the ethical, spiritual, and social implications of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Bishop Badejo of Nigeria recalled that just four days after his election, Pope Leo met with the media,  challenging them to safeguard the true nature of communication as creation of culture and of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”  

In response to those who may dismiss the pope’s call in his encyclical, Cardinal Cupich pointed out that “Pope Leo XIV is clear that this is Church doctrine and not simply a body of teaching that Catholics may choose to accept or ignore.”

Bishop Badejo sees the letter’s strongest point is its call for discernment and vigilance regarding the control of emerging technologies. The document is “now calling all segments of society to a shared discernment process guided by the Holy Spirit to discern how to navigate responsibly this intriguing era of AI.” Cardinal Cupich concurs. “The new technology has the potential to overtake our capacity to control it, and the pope is giving us a wake-up call to seize this moment with urgency."

Read to the Encyclical Magnifica humanitas