{"id":86118,"date":"2026-05-27T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=86118"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:45:09","slug":"to-understand-pope-leos-efforts-on-a-i-look-at-the-man-shaking-his-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/to-understand-pope-leos-efforts-on-a-i-look-at-the-man-shaking-his-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"To understand Pope Leo\u2019s efforts on A.I., look at the man shaking his hand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pope Leo XIV has been a major global critic of immigration crackdowns and war, staking out a moral agenda that has at times challenged the political leadership of his home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Leo, the first pope from the United States, has added to that list artificial intelligence, taking on American power brokers of another kind \u2014 this time in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo\u2019s papal document, titled \u201cMagnifica Humanitas,\u201d or \u201cMagnificent Humanity,\u201d and made public on Monday, is the defining theological statement so far of his young papacy, and the most significant moral intervention on A.I. to date from a religious leader. It also is an effort to inject Catholic moral values into a famously secular, and significantly American, industry that is transforming the world at lightning speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrucial questions impose themselves on our conscience and can no longer be avoided: Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as a people and as a human community?\u201d Leo wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo specifically called for A.I. to be \u201cdisarmed,\u201d similar to the church\u2019s support for nuclear disarmament, meaning \u201cfreed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,\u201d he explained in a speech at the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document\u2019s release in the synod hall was styled as a branded launch event, with bright yellow banners and a splashy introductory video, produced with EWTN, an American Catholic network with global reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seated three seats away from the pope on the dais was a high-powered A.I. pioneer, Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the American company Anthropic. The Vatican\u2019s invitation to such a business executive was a rarity. It signaled an attempt to expand Leo\u2019s influence, and his priority on dialogue even among unlikely partners, presenting a friendly posture alongside an ostensible adversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Leo, the way forward must involve collaboration, said Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Leo\u2019s hometown, who sat in the front row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that openness on the part of Mr. Olah, as well as the Holy Father, can be the bridge by which all that can happen,\u201d he said in an interview on his way out of the synod hall. \u201cThere is a need for the wisdom that the church\u2019s tradition can bring to this discussion of how to use A.I. in a way that preserves human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mr. Olah\u2019s presence also underscored that significant power lies not only with governments, but \u201cwith major economic and technological actors,\u201d as Leo noted, and that the Vatican is prioritizing these relationships in an almost official diplomatic capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo opened his remarks with a special thank you to Mr. Olah, almost as if he were a head of state. \u201cIn turn, in the name of the church I accept your invitation to walk together to listen and to speak and together to find the way for humanity in this time of artificial intelligence,\u201d Leo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vatican is acutely aware of technology\u2019s power to upend existing political and religious order. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century famously preceded the rise of nation-states and the Protestant Reformation, remaking the power of the Catholic church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vatican has been an instrumental force over the last decade in generating a global conversation about the value of the human in the A.I. age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church leaders under Pope Francis regularly held meetings called the \u201cMinerva Dialogues\u201d with technology leaders to discuss A.I. developments. Pope Francis met with the Group of 7 leaders in 2024 and urged regulation, and also called for the banning of lethal, autonomous weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo\u2019s document, called an encyclical, is in many ways a culmination of that effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt key moments in history, the Church is called to decipher the \u2018new things\u2019 in the light of the Gospel and the dignity of the human being,\u201d Leo said on Monday. \u201cToday we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude, with perhaps even greater consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moral critique of A.I. has been growing within some religious communities in the past few years. The effort to elevate a broader discussion has grown more urgent as the technology\u2019s impact for war and on children becomes more pressing. Powerful companies including Anthropic are on a path to becoming trillion-dollar ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities,\u201d Leo wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this document, Leo is offering a way for efforts to congeal into a united movement to defend what he describes as human flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catholic universities in the U.S., including Georgetown and Santa Clara, have taken significant steps to advance the conversation about A.I. and Catholic moral values in academic and public circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Notre Dame received a $50 million grant from the Lilly Endowment in December to develop faith-based ethical frameworks for A.I. through its Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meghan Sullivan, the director of that institute, said she often hears a concerning view when she meets with A.I. developers in Silicon Valley \u2014 \u201cthat only a few hundred people on earth actually matter right now: the ones building frontier models and the politicians powerful enough to regulate them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis encyclical is a direct rebuttal to that worldview,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Church is insisting, as it has for 2,000 years, that the people of Wichita and South Bend and Nairobi and Manila are not bit players in someone else\u2019s technological revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that we are seeing with Pope Leo in this encyclical, finally an institution that\u2019s powerful enough to stand up for those ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document has a particularly American appeal. Leo specifically references the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops \u2014 the only national conference to get a callout \u2014 in a section about caring for young people facing job insecurity. He quotes J. R. R. Tolkien\u2019s \u201cThe Return of the King,\u201d a novel beloved by many in America, particularly young men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How effective Leo\u2019s efforts will be, and how much impact a papal treatise can have even in Catholic circles, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Societies like the United States once held constitutional conventions to have robust public conversations about such critical topics, noted Ron Ivey, a longtime writer and research fellow with Harvard University\u2019s Human Flourishing Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too often the prevailing narrative is that humans have no choice but to accept the widespread required use of A.I., he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to have a public conversation, in our libraries, in our civil society, whatever is still strong in that area,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy are we building this thing, and who is it for, and how do we make it work for our flourishing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n