- Home
- Vol 36 No 10
- Pope Leo warns tech elite about the moral risks of AI
- 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.
Associate Professor Victoria Lorrimar is Director, Centre for Technology and Human Futures, Institute for Ethics and Society University of Notre Dame Australia
No comments:
Post a Comment