Vatican City — Pope Leo
We have been eagerly awaiting “Magnifica Humanitas,” Leo’s first encyclical, ever since the first American-born pope in history announced days after his election that he considered artificial intelligence to be the greatest challenge facing humanity today.
In the text, Liu condemned the “culture of power” driving the AI race, especially in developing more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was “not permissible” to attribute fatal and irreversible decisions to artificial intelligence systems, creating another flashpoint between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has worked aggressively to liberalize the development of artificial intelligence.
Pope Leo
AP Photos/Alessandra Tarantino
“Artificial intelligence now requires that it be disarmed and freed from the logic that turns it into an instrument of control, exclusion and death,” the Pope said in a special presentation to the Vatican about the encyclical.
Experts in the technology industry, academia and Catholic ethics said the document was likely to become a standard in the debate on artificial intelligence, and a reference point for policymakers, researchers and lay people alike. This comes as almost daily advances in technology raise concerns about artificial intelligence replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.
Taylor Black, Microsoft’s CEO of artificial intelligence and director of the Artificial Intelligence Institute at The Catholic University of America, said the document will prompt people “at the forefront of these tools” to ask questions like “What does it mean to be human?”
Bob calls out AI companies even as he hosts Anthropy
The Vatican launch also included remarks from the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over access to its artificial intelligence technology. The Vatican decided to engage Anthropics as part of its decade-long effort to engage Silicon Valley in a dialogue about the human cost of artificial intelligence.
However, in his text, Liu repeatedly criticized the concentration of power and data in the hands of too few people in the private sector as a danger, especially to children and the most vulnerable groups, and called for external regulation of their work.
“It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract,” he wrote. “There is a need for strong legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users, and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility.” “More ethical AI is not enough if that ethics is determined by a few people.”
Liu implored AI developers and the political leaders responsible for regulating them to slow down and think about what they are doing. He urged them to use moral and spiritual guidelines to decide to act not for their own benefit or power, but for the betterment of humanity.
AI rivals OpenAI and Anthropic are the second and third most valuable US private companies, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the gross domestic product of many countries. The two companies are heading towards an IPO worth nearly $1 trillion.
Christopher Ola, co-founder of Anthropic, welcomed Liu’s criticism and interest. Such external controls were essential “for the technology to go well” for humanity because there was so much at stake – “there is a real possibility that AI will replace human labor on a very large scale,” he said.
“We need more countries in the world – religious communities, civil society, scholars and governments – to do what His Holiness did here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to move events in a better direction,” Olah said. “We need moral voices that cannot be dissuaded by incentives.”
Experts say the text will become a standard
In a systematic text, the Pope’s great mathematician traces the history of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and applies its fundamental concepts—justice, solidarity, the dignity of labor, and the universal destination of resources—to the digital revolution.
“I am convinced that this will be a defining document for our time, a profound and prophetic document,” said Paolo Carrozza, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and chairman of the Meta Oversight Board.
He added, “Pope Leo presents a clear, comprehensive and coherent voice urging us to bear the responsibility of building a world in which technology serves people instead of weakening them.”
In his strongest chapter, Liu condemns how AI has helped accelerate the “normalization of war” by desensitizing people to its cost. He did not mention specific conflicts, but referred to “opposing imperialism, between powers that wish to maintain their superiority and those that aspire to seize that superiority.”
He called for transparency and accountability from AI developers so that the decision-making chain of command in ordering strikes with AI weapons is always known. He declared that the Catholic Church’s “just war” theory, which provides specific criteria for when force can be justified, was now “obsolete” given the technological advances of war.
A text in the social justice tradition in the church
Leo signed the text on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum” (The New Things), the most important didactic document of Leo’s hero and namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed to workers during the Industrial Revolution.
It has become the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope cited it at the beginning of his papacy in relation to the artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the industrial revolution did more than a century ago. “Magnifica Humanitas” thus becomes the latest chapter in the century-long history of popes who adapted “Rerum Novarum” to the social questions of their time, often emphasizing the dignity of labor for human flourishing.
Artificial intelligence raises existential fears and a utopian vision amid a heated debate over whether it will become a catalyst for humanity’s enrichment or a technological poison that weakens human intelligence while eliminating millions of high-paying jobs.
“The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human being is an end, not a means, and the economic system must remain subject to human dignity and the common good,” Liu wrote.
Leo expressed his interest in supporting human dignity in working to issue the first-ever papal apology for the Holy See’s role in legitimizing slavery by giving European monarchs explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”
A decade-long dialogue with Silicon Valley
Vatican officials declined to say who contributed to Leo’s encyclical. But Vatican and church officials have been engaged in dialogue with Silicon Valley technology companies for a decade.
The decision to include Anthropic at the Vatican launch was criticized by some who saw it as a papal seal of approval for the artificial intelligence company, which is currently suing the Trump administration after it ordered all US agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology for refusing to allow the US military to use it without restrictions.
Brian Boyd, US religious liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, read the inclusion of Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, as an acknowledgment of his prominent place in the field and as a papal audience with a head of state: not an endorsement.
Anthropic is “a huge company with enormous risk and responsibility,” Boyd said, adding that the company has “demonstrated real good faith, integrity, and interest in dialogue.”
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Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut, and Homani reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
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