Pope says AI must serve humanity, not power.

 Extract from Eureka Street

• Home
• Vol 36 No 10
• Pope says AI must serve humanity, not power

RELIGION

• Claudio Betti
• 28 May 2026                                   

 

It is clear that Pope Leo's document requires deeper analysis and cannot be exhausted by a rapid reading, yet some elements stand out immediately.

Not an era of change, but a change of era. Pope Francis' expression runs throughout the entire encyclical Magnifica Humanitas by Leo XIV. The impression is that the Pope reads our time as a historical phase marked by the meeting of two major phenomena. On one side, the extraordinary growth of technological capabilities and the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence. On the other side, the emergence of a culture where the language of force, control, and competition gradually replaces cooperation, fraternity, and shared responsibility. More than a document dedicated to artificial intelligence, the encyclical is a reflection on the human person and the destiny of contemporary society. AI becomes the visible starting point, almost the concrete place where deeper questions become evident. The real question running through the text concerns the human being: how people understand themselves, work, power, freedom, truth, and relationships.

Cardinal Fernández also observed this during the presentation of the document, insisting on the subtitle of the encyclical, which identifies its core concern as safeguarding the human person. In short, this should not be read as an encyclical about artificial intelligence, but as an encyclical in the time of artificial intelligence. The distinction is fundamental. An encyclical on artificial intelligence would probably have focused on technical characteristics, systems, regulations, and the limitations of digital tools. Leo XIV chooses a different path. Artificial intelligence represents the historical context within which deeper questions emerge. The real issues concern the human person, dignity, work, freedom, truth, power, and the future of human coexistence.

The first impression is that we are facing a new Rerum Novarum. At the end of the nineteenth century, Leo XIII confronted a revolution changing the world. Factories, machines, capital, and industrial transformations reshaped work and social life. On one side, immense wealth was produced. On the other side, new forms of poverty and exploitation emerged. Leo XIII understood that the problem was not the machine. The problem was humanity within the new system.

Leo XIV also adds an important observation regarding the birth of Rerum Novarum itself. He recalls that the encyclical did not arise simply from theoretical reflection or abstract principles. It was born from listening. Leo XIII looked at a changing world. He observed new factories, new forms of poverty, injustices, and suffering emerging at the heart of the industrial revolution. Before speaking, he listened. Before offering principles, he sought to understand.

Magnifica Humanitas arises from the same attitude. The encyclical is born from listening to the signs of the times, according to the language of the Second Vatican Council. It is also born from listening to real people, their fears, hopes, wounds, and expectations. This recalls the opening of Gaudium et Spes, when the Council states that “the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age, especially of those who are poor or in any way afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

This point deserves attention because it prevents an overly abstract reading of the document. Artificial intelligence is not observed from above as an isolated technical phenomenon. It is considered from the perspective of the men and women who will experience its consequences. It focuses on those who risk losing employment, those who could be excluded from decision-making processes, and those who could become invisible within increasingly automated systems.

 

“At Babel, human beings seek a single language. They seek uniformity, control, and power. At Pentecost, something different happens. A new language is not born. A language made new is born. Each person continues to hear in their own language and history. The Spirit does not eliminate differences. It makes them understandable. Unity does not arise from uniformity but from communion.”

 

As often happens in Catholic Social Teaching, the encyclical's gaze begins with those on the margins. With people who risk having no voice. With those who often remain at the edges of major historical transformations. Listening to the signs of the times becomes inseparable from listening to the sufferings and expectations of the men and women of our age.

Today the risk appears different, yet surprisingly similar. If in the past human beings risked becoming components within the industrial machine, today they may become data, algorithms, digital profiles, statistics, or measurable performances. It is not difficult to recognise signs of this transformation. Technological capacities continue to grow, possibilities of control increase, and enormous wealth concentrates in the hands of very few economic and technological actors. Some enter the future at extraordinary speed while others risk being left behind.

The encyclical therefore asks a simple and radical question. Who truly benefits from progress? Who remains outside? Who becomes invisible?

The document places itself within the broader tradition of the Church's social teaching. Recalling Paul VI, it brings back a significant expression: the Church is “an expert in humanity”. This phrase does not mean the Church possesses technical expertise superior to scientists, economists, or engineers. It means something different. Through centuries of history, wars, crises, and transformations, the Church has learned to continually ask what makes the human person truly human. Its fundamental questions do not concern the functioning of machines but the destiny of persons.

For this reason, one of the most interesting aspects of the encyclical is that the Church does not seek a new enemy. It did not do so during the Industrial Revolution and does not do so today with artificial intelligence. Magnifica Humanitas does not construct a conflict between faith and technology. Anna Rowlands recalled this during the presentation. The Church has often seen technological innovations as opportunities for growth and encounter. Printing enabled an unimaginable spread of knowledge. New forms of communication transformed how the Gospel was proclaimed. The internet has opened new possibilities for knowledge and relationships.

The question is not whether technology should be accepted or rejected. The question concerns how it is inserted within a vision of the human person and society.

Here one of the most beautiful biblical images of the entire document emerges. On one side stands Babel. On the other side stands the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. Babel represents a project of domination and self-sufficiency. Human beings seek to ascend to heaven through their own strength. They seek greatness and uniformity. The logic of Babel is also the logic of force that attempts to build the world from above, imposing a single language, a single direction, and a single criterion of judgment. Jerusalem instead represents a city built upon communion. If Babel is born from the desire to reach God through human power, Jerusalem is born from the encounter between God and humanity. If Babel creates uniformity, Jerusalem preserves differences. If Babel seeks domination, Jerusalem creates belonging.

There may be an element that at first appears secondary but carries deeper meaning. The encyclical is published not only on the one hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. It is also promulgated the day after Pentecost. It is difficult to consider such a coincidence irrelevant. If the reference to Rerum Novarum places the document within the great journey of Catholic Social Teaching, the timing of Pentecost adds another dimension. At Babel, human beings seek a single language. They seek uniformity, control, and power. At Pentecost, something different happens. A new language is not born. A language made new is born. Each person continues to hear in their own language and history. The Spirit does not eliminate differences. It makes them understandable. Unity does not arise from uniformity but from communion.

Perhaps artificial intelligence itself can be read through this perspective. It may become the new language of humanity. Anna Rowlands observed that every major technological transformation opens new possibilities for communication and encounter. The question is not simply whether to use this language or not. The question is what spirit will inhabit it. Christians may be called to transform a new language into a language made new, that is, an evangelised language. A language capable of safeguarding what is human, creating relationships instead of isolation, fostering encounter instead of domination, and opening spaces for truth and hope instead of feeding only speed, control, and power.

Leo XIV therefore asks a question that runs throughout the encyclical. What are we building?

History does not appear as an automatic mechanism already written. The encyclical speaks of a great construction site of our age. We are called to live within this site with freedom and responsibility. We are not passive spectators of the transformations taking place. We are builders. The future does not simply happen. It is built through concrete decisions. Humanity is not crushed by inevitable processes. Human beings still possess the freedom to direct history.

The issue becomes even clearer when the document addresses the theme of human dignity. The encyclical insists on the ontological dignity of the person. Dignity does not derive from success, productivity, or social usefulness. It does not depend on intellectual capacities. It belongs to every human being simply because he or she exists.

The implications are enormous. An artificial system may classify data, construct predictions, recognise patterns, and identify correlations. It cannot determine the value of a person.

The encyclical then introduces another theme that occupies a central place in the text, namely truth. Leo XIV observes that the problem of AI concerns not only what we are able to do but also what we are able to believe. Truth is described as a common good and not as the property of those who possess greater power or visibility. The risk does not consist simply in the presence of false information. There is a deeper issue. Digital platforms can create environments in which what is most visible automatically becomes what appears most true.

For this reason, the encyclical speaks of a true ecology of communication. Rules are needed, along with transparency, serious journalism, critical thinking, and spaces in which dialogue and verification of facts truly matter.

Alongside truth, the educational dimension also emerges strongly. One of the most interesting observations concerns education in the age of AI. Educating people in the use of artificial intelligence also means teaching them when and for what purposes not to use it. The speed with which we now obtain answers risks extinguishing something essential: the desire to ask questions in the first place.

At this point another question emerges, one that directly concerns the mission of the Church. What does it mean to evangelise in the age of artificial intelligence? It does not simply mean using new tools or new platforms. It means proclaiming the Gospel within a culture that increasingly interprets reality through data, algorithms, and measurable performance. Evangelising today may mean reminding people that they are more than their digital profile, more than their measurable achievements, and more than their data. There are fundamental dimensions of human experience that cannot be reduced to an algorithm, such as love, forgiveness, gratuity, compassion, and hope.

Finally, one of the most dramatic themes of the entire document emerges, namely the relationship between artificial intelligence and war. Here the theme of the age of force returns. War slowly risks becoming something normal. The language of absolute security and power tends to replace that of diplomacy, cooperation, and the patient construction of peace. Artificial intelligence may accelerate this process by making conflict faster, more impersonal, and more distant from moral responsibility.

In his public remarks, Leo XIV used a very powerful image when he stated that artificial intelligence must be disarmed. This expression does not mean eliminating technology or stopping progress. It means removing these instruments from the logic of force and domination. No algorithm can make war morally acceptable. No machine can assume the ethical weight of a human life.

At the end, Magnifica Humanitas brings everything back to a very simple question. It is not about the machine. It is about us. Are we building ever more powerful tools, or are we building more human beings?

 

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Dr Claudio Betti is a historian and director of Australian Catholic University’s Rome Campus.

 

Mosquitoes can learn to be attracted to the smell of repellent, study finds.

Extract from ABC News

• By Ellen Phiddian

• ABC Science

• Topic:Insects

3 hours ago

Yellow fever mosquitoes carry a number of diseases including dengue fever, which kills roughly 40,000 people each year. (iNaturalist: Alfonso Auerbach, CC BY-NC 4.0)

In short:

Scientists have found that mosquitoes can learn to associate repellent with food.

Their study suggests mosquitoes can overcome their aversion to repellents, which could have implications for our understanding of what steps we need to take to protect ourselves from being bitten.

What's next?

The researchers say these findings haven't been tested in mosquitoes outside the lab, and that people should continue to use repellents to prevent a range of potentially deadly diseases.

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Mosquitoes are the world's deadliest animal, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide each year with the diseases they carry.

Repellent, which drives mosquitoes away with its smell, is an important tool in the arsenal against these diseases.

But according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, mosquitoes can learn to overcome their disgust — at least in the lab.

Scientists have found that mosquitoes can be trained to connect the smell of a widely used repellent (diethyltoluamide, or DEET) with food.

Their discovery could have broader implications for ongoing mosquito control.

Claudio Lazzari, lead author on the paper and a researcher at the University of Tours in France, said this was the first time anyone had reported mosquitoes being attracted to DEET.

Professor Lazzari said the findings suggested low concentrations from hours-old repellent could be too weak to repel mosquitoes, but strong enough to signal food.

But he emphasised the findings were only short-term, and people should keep using repellents according to the instructions on the product. 

"DEET remains the gold standard for repellents,"

Professor Lazzari said.

"It is an effective means of protecting yourself against mosquito bites and can save lives in areas where mosquito-borne diseases are prevalent."

Teaching mosquitoes to find repellent delicious

The researchers ran a series of experiments with a species of mosquito (Aedes aegypti) that can spread dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus and chikungunya.

These diseases kill tens of thousands of people worldwide each year (although Aedes mosquitoes don't carry malaria, which is the largest mosquito-related killer).

The researchers put mosquitoes one-by-one into a small tube covered with mesh, set up with a mechanism for pumping the smell of DEET through, and warm bags of sheep's blood to feed from.

All mosquitoes in the experiment were female, since only female mosquitoes feed on blood. (Supplied: Romina Barrozo)

The researchers then submitted some of their mosquitoes to "Pavlovian" conditioning, named after 19th century Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who taught dogs to link the sound of a bell with dinner.

After letting the mosquitoes feast on blood for 20 seconds, the researchers wafted DEET into their tubes for 10 seconds.

They ran this training regimen three times, then tested the mosquitoes' DEET response by spraying the smell into the enclosure without adding food.

Sixty per cent of the trained mosquitoes tried to bite at non-existent blood bags, suggesting they'd learned the smell of DEET signalled dinner.

Each mosquito was discarded after testing. (Supplied: Romina Barrozo)

To see how they'd respond to human prey, one of the researchers dipped one of her hands in DEET.

A few minutes later, she offered her DEET-covered hand and her untreated hand to mosquitoes at either end of a mesh-covered tube.

More than half the DEET-trained mosquitoes tried to bite the DEET-covered hand, while untrained mosquitoes all opted for the untreated hand.

"The experiment was conducted in such a way that the mosquitoes could never reach the experimenter," Professor Lazzari said, adding that the mosquitoes were a lab-bred variety that carried no diseases.

The researchers also repeated the test with sugar instead of blood, finding that a different reward was still equally enticing to the mosquitoes.

Mosquito preferences can be changed

While DEET has been widely used since the 1950s, scientists still aren't sure exactly why it repels insects.

"The general consensus was that repellents worked solely because of their chemical properties: either they were toxic or unpleasant to mosquitoes, driving them away; or they blocked their ability to detect humans," Professor Lazzari said.

But he said their findings, along with other more recent research, suggested that mosquitoes' response to repellent was more plastic.

"Mosquitoes are not programmed robots, but cognitive creatures."

Professor Lazzari said other species of mosquito could probably be trained in a similar way, but this would need to be tested.

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Thomas Schmidt, an insect researcher at the University of Sydney who wasn't involved in the study, said that it was a very interesting result.

"A mosquito is incredible — it's like a whole advanced set of nervous sensory systems with wings," Dr Schimdt said.

"There's bound to be so much complexity within the mosquito nervous system that we don't know about yet, and we're really just uncovering that at the moment."

Wild mosquitoes may be different

Dr Schmidt said that mosquitoes can have very complex behavioural responses to the world around them.

But, he said, the highly synthetic environment the mosquitoes were tested in made it hard to draw conclusions about how they'd act in the wild.

For a start, the mosquitoes were trained with sheep's blood, when Aedes aegypti feed almost exclusively on humans.

The mosquito strain the researchers used had also been bred in labs since the 1960s, meaning they may have diverged from their modern wild cousins.

"These mosquitoes are a bit different in how they might behave compared to mosquitoes that have never been kept in the lab," Dr Schimdt said.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is not native to Australia, but is found in Queensland. (iNaturalist: Jorge J. Rodríguez Rojas, CC BY-NC 4.0)

While there's no evidence of mosquitoes becoming attracted to DEET in the wild, Dr Schmidt said there had been reports of mosquitoes showing complex behaviour in response to the world around them.

"For instance, there are reports of mosquitoes that are able to evade insecticides by flying up in the air while the insecticides are being used at street level, and then coming back down to the ground hours later after the insecticides have dispersed," he said.

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Professor Lazzari said it was possible wild mosquitoes could learn to love the smell of DEET, but as they had not studied them, they couldn't confirm this.

"Our experiments were conducted under very specific conditions and aimed to shed light on how repellents work," he said.

The training experiments only lasted between 20 minutes and a few days at a time, and the researchers haven't tested any longer-term responses.

Dr Schmidt agreed, saying that the findings shouldn't dissuade anyone from using repellent.

"The general consensus is that mosquito repellent works very, very well and it's an extremely useful way to prevent mosquito disease — or just being annoyed by mosquitoes biting you."

Benjamin Netanyahu directs Israel's military to take over 70 per cent of Gaza.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

58 minutes ago

Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of Gaza. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)

In short:

Benjamin Netanyahu has directed Israel's military to take more of Gaza, saying he will "start" by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory,

Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of Gaza, now bombarded to ruins by Israel's two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

What's next?

Mr Netanyahu's directive comes as Israel escalates its attacks in Gaza during Eid al-Adha celebrations.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed Israel's military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny strip of land along the coast.

Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of Gaza, now bombarded to ruins by Israel's two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Under an October US-brokered truce that has failed to halt Israeli attacks or secure Hamas's disarmament, Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a Yellow Line demarcating the extent of their control.

Marked on military maps, that line put Israel in control of some 53 per cent of Gaza, with Hamas ruling the rest.

Israel undermines support as it focuses on optics over actions

In the wake of an outcry over its treatment of detained activists, Israel has focused on messaging as its actions undermine its support from the international community. 

Reuters has reported Israel has unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line on the ground deeper into Hamas-controlled territory.

Maps issued by the military in March showed an even bigger restricted area that analysts say cordons off around 64 per cent of Gaza's territory in total.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said in public remarks the military controls more than 60 per cent of Gaza.

Speaking to a conference in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli leader said even more of Gaza would be taken.

"We were at 60, we moved to 60. My directive is to move to — let's go step by step," Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday, local time.

"First of all, 70. Let's start with that. We're pressing them [Hamas] from all sides. We'll deal with the remnants."

Benjamin Netanyahu made the statements at a conference in an Israeli settlement of the occupied West Bank. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)

Israeli strikes continue during Eid al-Adha

Mr Netanyahu describes the territory Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as "buffer zones" that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that set off the Gaza war.

Palestinians view Israel's widening Gaza buffer zone as a part of a strategy to permanently displace them, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defence chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage "voluntary migration" from Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu's directive comes as Israel escalates its attacks in Gaza that it says target senior Hamas leaders who were involved in the 2023 attacks.

On Tuesday, Israel killed Hamas's armed wing chief, 10 days after killing his predecessor.

Palestinian clown Reyad Bader performs for children on a street during Eid al-Adha celebrations as Israeli continues to strike the enclave. (AP: Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza health officials say an additional strike on Wednesday night, that Israel had said targeted two Hamas leaders, killed at least 10 people, including five children, and injured 18 others.

That strike came as Palestinians were marking the Muslim holiday festival of Eid al-Adha, which many in Gaza celebrated by gathering together in tent encampments and in bombed-out buildings.

Etidal Al-Za'im said she was with her family inside their tent marking the holiday when suddenly rubble from the strike targeting the building next to them fell on top of them.

"We came out to the sound of a bang, we sat for an hour before we could come out through the [rubble] and find a way out of the tent,"

she said.

The Gazans mourning loved ones in the rubble of destroyed homes

The families of Palestinians believed to be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings want to bury their dead.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 900 people since the truce, health officials say, while Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants during the same period.

Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in talks to advance a US plan for Gaza that would see Israeli troops withdraw and Hamas disarm.

Another man who witnessed Wednesday's Israeli strike, who identified himself as Abu Azam, said a "person in Gaza has no safety at all".

"He could be hit in the street, he could be hit in the house, he could be hit in the hospital, he could be hit on his way to the market," Abu Azam said.

Reuters

Victoria Park advocates urge Queensland government to stop stadium work until Indigenous heritage challenges assessed.

Extract from ABC News

By Will Murray

• Topic:Olympic Games Venues

48 minutes ago

Gaja Kerry Charlton is a signatory to five challenges to the Victoria Park stadium project. (ABC News: Will Murray)

In short:

Advocates are urging the Queensland government to pause construction at Victoria Park until challenges under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act can be assessed.

A new report has also found the site's status as a spring complex will not survive development and ancient trees cannot be replaced.

What's next?

The park will change from council to Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) ownership on Monday, but excavators and fencing are already on site.

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Brisbane's Victoria Park will not become the construction site for a new Olympic stadium until Monday, but despite unresolved legal challenges, bulldozers and excavators are already lining up.

The fencing and excavators began appearing at the hotly contested site earlier this week.

It's indicative of the Queensland government's eagerness to push ahead with building the centrepiece of the 2032 Games as soon as the park passes from the control of the Brisbane City Council to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) on June 1.

"The time for talk is over, the time for action is now," Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie declared yesterday.

An artist's impression of the new Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park.  (Supplied: Queensland Government)

But Yagara Elder Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton, a signatory to five challenges to the stadium project under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection (ATSIHP) Act, said the application was still being assessed by Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt.

"We're still in the Section 10 process and they've started putting up fences," she said.

Under Section 10, Senator Watt could halt development if he is satisfied the park is a significant Aboriginal area, and under threat of injury or desecration.

But the federal department has no power to stop construction work while the applications are outstanding, and there is no timeline as to when a decision will be made.

Excavators are on-site and ready to begin work on the Victoria Park stadium from Monday. (ABC News: Will Murray)

Even if they win, Gaja Kerry believes significant damage could be done to the park between Monday and a decision.

She is asking GIICA and the state government to delay the 'bulldozers and excavators' until Minister Watt has his say, but is not optimistic.

On Thursday, Mr Bleijie said the government would not push back the demolition.

"No way, we are good to go," he said.

"We are going for this, because Queenslanders expect us to get on with the job and start building this stuff."

"I don't think there's been much respect shown for the process by (Minister Bleijie),"

Gaja Kerry said.

The park will be fenced off and closed to the public from June 1. (ABC News: Will Murray)

The last hope

The ATSIHP Act challenges are seen as the best opportunity for those opposed to the Victoria Park stadium to have it stopped, after the project was made exempt from state planning laws and cleared on environmental grounds.

"We have records of our ancestors here, and the lived experience of my mother's generation, my grandparents' generation, my great-grandparents' generation," Gaja Kerry said.

"Many of these trees pre-date European settlement. Our totems are all around here. In the trees, the habitats, the ecosystems.

"Kippa ceremonies were held here, so rites of passage from childhood to teenage years."

The Victoria Park stadium project was made exempt from state planning laws and cleared on environmental grounds. (ABC News: Will Murray)

The mood of the signatories has recently received a boost, thanks to a report by hydrogeologist Ned Hamer.

"There are a number of springs here, we call it a springs complex," Mr Hamer said.

"(Victoria Park) is where the rainfall lands on the recharge area for the springs, infiltrates through the soil profile and into the fractured rock aquifer beneath us.

"It then discharges in the lower parts of the landscape as clear, fresh water."

Large expanses of open parkland like Victoria Park are now rare in Brisbane, and Mr Hamer said it is the city's last remaining spring complex.

Ned Hamer says Victoria Park is Brisbane's last spring complex and holds significant ecological value. (ABC News: Will Murray)

He said its value was understood by Aboriginal people and early European settlers alike.

"This area, Barrambin-Victoria Park, was mapped and gazetted as a water reserve and a recreational reserve in the 1840s," Mr Hamer said.

"That's pretty much equivalent to national park status these days."

The report found the spring system continues to flow year-round and in drought, making it of significant ecological value.

It also noted the importance of this water source to First Nations people, who regard springs as sacred.

Waterways at the lower end of Victoria Park will be impacted by the stadium build, according to hydrogeologist Ned Hamer. (ABC News: Will Murray)

From a dump, to a golf course

Victoria Park was used as a golf course from the 1930s until 2021.

The Queensland Government has said it plans to revitalise the parts of the park not taken up by stadium and keep sections as open space for the public to enjoy.

Mr Bleijie has previously said under-utilisation of the park was why it was suited to development.

Jarrod Bleijie says excavators and bulldozers will begin work at Victoria Park from Monday. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)

"It was a dump, then it was a golf course, so people weren't carrying a blankie and having a picnic at the golf course, because they would've got killed with golf balls hitting them in the head," he said in November.

But there were plans to improve the park before the stadium proposition.

When Brisbane City Council closed the golf course in 2021 it was in preparation to enact their master plan for the site, which sought to celebrate its cultural significance and natural waterways.

The previous plan for revitalising Victoria Park included efforts to preserve its cultural significance and natural waterways. (ABC News: Will Murray)

Mr Hamer said the council's plan would have preserved the park's natural assets, but the stadium would not.

"You can't replace big old trees," he said.

"You can't have a spring without catchment area.

"A stadium would completely diminish and extinguish the source of water for the springs."

Pope Leo warns tech elite about the moral risks of AI.

Extract from Eureka Street

• Home
• Vol 36 No 10
• Pope Leo warns tech elite about the moral risks of AI

RELIGION

• Victoria Lorrimar
• 27 May 2026                                  

 

Pope Leo XIV structures his Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”) encyclical around a potent metaphor: artificial intelligence represents the “construction site” of our present age, and we have two potential paths before us. We can either build the tower of Babel, that ultimate symbol for human hubris in which technology is used in an attempt to reach heaven without God’s assistance or blessing, or we can build the city in which we dwell with God and with one another in all life’s fullness.

The newest social encyclical, launched Monday 25 May 2026, is subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence”. The nuance is important here. The encyclical is not a narrow response to AI but a broad contribution to Catholic social teaching. Grounded in a thorough exposition of the Church’s social doctrine, Magnifica Humanitas hearkens back explicitly to Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891), which upheld the dignity of work against the challenges of the second industrial revolution. This connection is further strengthened by the signing of Magnifica Humanitas on 15 May, the anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

The world waited a week for the encyclical’s presentation and promulgation after its signing due to a break from tradition. The presence of several cardinals alongside His Holiness at the launch of the encyclical was familiar, but the pope also chose to include two female theologians – Professor Anna Rowlands of Durham University and Professor Leocadie Lushombo of Santa Clara University – and Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah. The line-up of speakers perhaps recognises that the Church must maintain dialogue across the domains of contemporary life if its relevance and moral authority are to be acknowledged beyond a Catholic context.

The presence of the Anthropic co-founder alongside the Holy Father at the encyclical’s launch should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any aspect of the current AI landscape, however. While Anthropic has worked hard to distinguish itself from its competitors as the AI company that takes the perspectives of religious and philosophical traditions seriously in the development of its model, Olah himself acknowledged that the incentive structures of the AI industry do not always push innovation in the direction of the common good. Instead, tech executives are swayed by commercial and geopolitical concerns, as well as plain old ambition and pride.

This dissonance between a world dominated by tech interests and the vision of the common good upheld by the Church pervades the encyclical. Pope Leo returns to the dignity of work emphasised in Rerum Novarum, warning against the new threat posed by AI to employment and job security. Work is a fundamental human good, in and of itself, not merely a means to generate income and certainly not an activity to be exploited for maximal gain.

Magnifica Humanitas resonates more strongly still with Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ (2015, “On Care for Our Common Home”). Like his predecessor, Pope Leo critiques the technocratic paradigm for the way in which it concentrates wealth and power in the hands of an elite few and increases precarity and fragility everywhere else. Magnifica Humanitas reminds us that technology is not neutral, and that a technological mindset has captured our age, such that all problems are framed as solvable through technology.

 

“We can either build the tower of Babel, that ultimate symbol for human hubris in which technology is used in an attempt to reach heaven without God’s assistance or blessing, or we can build the city in which we dwell with God and with one another in all life’s fullness.”

 

The various means of safeguarding the human person detailed in the encyclical push against this technological zeitgeist. There are calls to slow down AI development while genuine and broadly representative moral frameworks are articulated; to practise restraint in AI use; to privilege the dignity of work as foundational to human life over efficiency in workforce decisions; to ensure that the distribution of financial credit supports income generation primarily through labour; and to use taxation to redistribute wealth accrued through technological investments. In a move that will undoubtedly provoke much debate, Pope Leo also identifies a need to update just war theory, rendered insufficient in the contemporary arena of war by the prevalence of algorithms that remove human moral discernment from decision-making processes.

In a document filled with references to prior magisterial texts, Vatican communications and theological writings, Leo calls on the wisdom of none other than Gandalf, Tolkien’s wizard sage, as he entreats us to do our part:

 

“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.”

— The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter IX

 

Although Pope Leo describes AI as “a valuable tool that requires vigilance”, it is clear from the entirety of the encyclical that he finds many more reasons for vigilance when it comes to current AI tools than he does to ascribe value to them. Leo invokes the notion of “disarmament” with respect to AI, again underscoring its problematic entanglement with contemporary warfare. The practical guidance offered calls us to adopt the perspective of victims, with victims of war singled out in particular. Peace is built through practising justice.

These exhortations are strengthened by the humble posture taken up in the encyclical concerning the Church’s history. Pope Leo acknowledges that the Church was complicit in slavery and slow to condemn it; he asks for pardon. This examination of conscience is critical in maintaining the vigilance required to avoid new forms of slavery. The encyclical is alert to the danger of digital colonialism, imposed through algorithmic overreach, data appropriation and extractive labour conditions in the development of AI models and infrastructure.

The encyclical is not good news for the technological elite. The only way forward for artificial intelligence involves its rescue from monopolistic control and ambitions of dominance, and the redistribution of its fruits to benefit all people. It requires coordinated resistance, via governance, regulatory and financial mechanisms, to the value-capture logic of algorithmic evaluation and optimisation narratives in determining what constitutes human flourishing. But the vision of humanity outlined by Pope Leo is truly magnificent, and worth the effortful resistance and shared moral discernment required to build the city of God.

 

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Associate Professor Victoria Lorrimar is Director, Centre for Technology and Human Futures, Institute for Ethics and Society University of Notre Dame Australia

 

Hamas confirms that Israeli air strike killed its new military leader in Gaza.

 Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

6 hours ago

Palestinians held a funeral for Mohammad Odeh the day after he was killed by Israel. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)

In short:

Dozens of Palestinians have carried the body of Hamas' armed wing chief through the streets of Gaza a day after he was killed by Israel.

Mohammad Odeh death comes little more than a week after his predecessor was killed in an Israeli strike.

What's next?

Israel says it will continue to target Hamas militant leaders.

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An Israeli air strike in Gaza has killed new Hamas leader Mohammed Odeh, his wife and two of his children, the militant group has confirmed.

The Israeli military said Odeh was killed in a targeted attack on Tuesday night, local time, just over a week after his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, was killed in an Israeli strike.

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Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that the IDF military had targeted and killed Odeh.

The attack came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

Dozens of Palestinians carried the body of Odeh through the streets of Gaza in a funeral procession on Wednesday.

Hours after Odeh's funeral, the Israeli military said it targeted two Hamas militants in a strike in northern Gaza, without disclosing their identity.

At least seven people were killed and more than 20 wounded in an Israeli strike on an apartment in a building in Gaza on Wednesday evening, health officials said.

Images from the scene showed flames pouring from an upper-floor window of a building and bystanders rushing to carry injured people, including children, to waiting ambulances.

Smoke rises from a residential building following an Israeli strike in Gaza. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)

Funeral procession

Mourners covered the four bodies with green Hamas flags and marched from a mosque through the city, chanting and firing shots in the air.

Some carried posters with Odeh's photo, emblazoned with the words "one of the chiefs of staffs of the Qassam Brigades," referring to Hamas's military wing.

Hamas condemned the strike and said Odeh had been active with the group for more than three decades and was part of the first generation that helped establish the movement's military wing.

Almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was announced. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)

Sources close to Hamas told Reuters that Odeh was possibly the last remaining living member of the armed wing's higher leadership council.

Abu Al-Abd Odeh, one of Odeh's relatives, said Israel's campaign would not stop Palestinians from rising up.

"This journey will not stop and the struggle of the Palestinian people will continue on all levels," he said at a mosque in Gaza City during the funeral.

Mr Katz called Odeh "one of the architects" of the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that triggered the years-long war in Gaza.

He said it was the fourth time Israel had killed the head of Hamas's military wing since the start of the war. Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the previous head, was killed on May 16.

Mr Katz said that Israel would continue to target Hamas leaders involved in the October 7 attack.

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The families of Palestinians believed to be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings want to bury their dead.

"We pledged that Hamas will not hold civilian or military rule," he wrote on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is preparing for elections in October, also said that Israel would target everyone involved in the October 7 attack.

Since the October truce, Israel has killed about 900 Palestinians, according to figures from Gazan health officials. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants during the same period, according to the Israeli military.

Hamas does not disclose figures for casualties among its fighters. Israel says its post-ceasefire strikes are aimed at preventing attacks or stopping people from approaching its armistice line with Hamas.

Israel and Hamas are deadlocked in indirect talks over implementing the second phase of a ceasefire deal, which includes the group's disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals.

The ceasefire agreed in October left Israel in control of more than half of Gaza.

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