Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence is unusual in its intense focus on a single new technology.
The document draws parallels to previous times of cultural and technological upheaval, all the way back to the Tower of Babel, but consistently conveys the sense that AI is something new — an unprecedented challenge to human dignity and spirituality.
Pope Leo frequently returns to the theme of uniformity versus communion, stressing that the quest for uniformity is sterile, mechanistic, and prone to tyrannical abuse, while communion is voluntary and joyous, bringing people together with each other and God. The encyclical asserts that, while AI might become smarter than any one of us, it will never be able to match the unexpected and delightful achievements of all of us — the unpredictable genius of magnificent humanity.
The pope’s Tower of Babel analogy draws parallels between the development of AI and the construction of the ancient Tower of Babel, “an impressive feat” constructed with “a single language, a single technology, a single direction.”
The Tower of Babel was nevertheless doomed because “it was a project conceived without reference to God, supported by a uniformity that eliminated diversity and that chose homogenization over communion.”
The hubristic architects of that tower sought to impose a single language and purpose upon all men and women of their day, but they wound up understanding each other less than ever — an apt analogy for the bubbling morass of AI-influenced social media where every language can be instantly translated but people are losing their desire to cherish the beauty and subtlety of communication.
The pope also draws parallels between AI and the Book of Nehemiah which tells the story of a leader who was wise enough to let the people of Jerusalem rebuild their city with their own creativity and innovation instead of forcing a strict top-down program upon them.
Pope Leo saw the essence of uniformity versus communion revealed in the Book of Nehemiah, a triumph of “the harmony that arises when all persons assume their own role and recognize that their strength comes from the Lord.” He worries that AI may concentrate even more power and wealth in the hands of a few, taking us ever further from the wisdom of Nehemiah.
Elsewhere the pope writes of “collective discernment,” a cousin to the theory of collective intelligence, which explains why free-market systems invariably outperform moribund top-down authoritarian schemes. No matter how intelligent and wise central planners might imagine themselves to be, they are always defeated by the unruly, undisciplined, but glorious collective intelligence of free people, acting with intimate knowledge of their opportunities and challenges — and accepting both the material consequences and moral weight of their actions.
The papal encyclical stresses the importance of moral connectivity in an age of global digital networks.
“Faith invites us to see this reality as a call: we are not merely neighbors to one another, but entrusted to each other, so that each of us may take responsibility, as best we can, for the lives and wounds of our brothers and sisters,” the pope cautions.
Magnifica Humanitas is not solely concerned with technology or artificial intelligence; like previous encyclicals, many of which Pope Leo references in his writing, it outlines the Church’s perspectives on society, justice, and morality. The new encyclical frequently returns to the theme of choice as an element of human dignity. As Nehemiah demonstrated, people must be given the freedom to choose, and to bring their unique talents and perspectives to great projects and debates, but they should be called to choose wisely. The great challenge of AI is that people are beginning to subcontract their thinking and decision-making to machines, which are not illuminated by the divine, as human minds can and should be.
“The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization,” Pope Leo writes. There is dangerously little room for “small and steadfast acts of fidelity” in a society administered by large language models and algorithms.
The Pope concludes his encyclical with “the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word may have become flesh, but can it become code?
Pope Leo fears that AI, as a subset of transhumanism, tempts people away from the true immortality of faith and spirit with the permanence of the material world, deleting our humility by offering the illusion of “dominance” over Creation.
The pope urges us to “cultivate relationships,” a slow and careful process that runs counter to an “era that favors speed and fragmentation.” He asks us to see the human being as “a creature embedded in a network of relationships with other living beings, and with all of creation.” That network is vast and portions of it may forever remain beyond human comprehension, so people may prefer to spend their time with the smaller, meaner network shimmering from their phones and computer screens.
“The digital culture multiplies connections and offers new opportunities for interaction; yet, the human heart retains an irrevocable need for genuine closeness. I invite everyone to cherish places and times where physical presence remains crucial, such as shared meals, Christian community gatherings, time spent with the lonely and serving the poor,” Pope Leo advises.
Is AI just another tool, among the most powerful and dangerous ever developed but still a conceptual descendant of fire, which gave mankind its first taste of the beauty and terror of Creation? Or is it something entirely new, a force that may come to redefine human affairs, and even humanity itself? Can machines ever truly think, and if so, can they become spiritual?
Magnifica Humanitas considers these questions, and advises us on how to think about them, but the definitive answers remain elusive. The people standing atop the Tower of Babel thought they had all the answers, after all, and they were horribly mistaken. The encyclical posits that hope is what makes humanity magnificent. We are all hoping for the best from the new technology of artificial intelligence, but we have yet to create an AI that hopes for the best from us.