10 things to know about Pope Leo’s encyclical on AI

What does it mean to safeguard our humanity? That question is at the heart of Pope Leo XIV’s much anticipated first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, released May 25. The following are some key things to know about this weighty papal letter.

1. Latin for “Magnificent Humanity,” the title is drawn from the opening words of the text as rendered in Latin, as is customary for papal encyclicals. Those words state, in its English translation, “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.” Throughout the encyclical, Pope Leo points to “the grandeur of humanity,” with men and women created by God for relationship with him and each other, cooperating in God’s creative work and guided by the Holy Spirit.
2. The document is about 42,000 words long, including footnotes, making it roughly the size of a novella. It spans five chapters sandwiched between a robust introduction and conclusion. The first chapter traces the development of Catholic social doctrine, or social teaching, especially since Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s seminal 1891 encyclical on the dignity of labour. The second chapter dives into the substance of Catholic social teaching. The third chapter explores the challenges artificial intelligence presents to humanity; the fourth chapter hones in on safeguarding truth, work and freedom; and the fifth chapter focuses on the implications of AI in warfare.

Education

3. From education and jobs to families, data ownership, economic inequality, transhumanism, cyberattacks and warfare, Magnifica Humanitas is wide-ranging in its treatment of artificial intelligence. Pope Leo is clear, however, that AI and technology should not be feared as inherently hostile to humanity. “Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity,” he writes. Rather, technological development can improve human life when it is ordered toward the good. For that reason, he speaks directly to AI developers, saying that “technological innovation can represent human participation in the divine act of creation,” and that every design choice carries “a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility.”
4. The document includes references to an array of influential thinkers. Beyond Pope Leo’s papal predecessors, the letter points to or quotes Dorothy Day, Maria Montessori, Martin Luther King Jr., J.R.R. Tolkien, Plato, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the American humanist thinker Hannah Arendt, among others. And, of course, Pope Leo weaves in St Augustine, the patron of Pope Leo’s Augustinian religious order and Pope Leo’s ever-present guide, particularly through the African bishop’s important fifth-century book, The City of God.

The task of building today must place our relationship with God at its centre”

5. It uses biblical imagery, imploring people to examine what humanity is building in “the construction site of our time.” The Tower of Babel and the City of God are contrasted throughout the encyclical to illustrate the two possible directions that the era of AI could take: a path of arrogance, artificial sense of self-sufficiency and chaos, or a path towards communion, relationship and God. Pope Leo underlines the critical need for developing a process for discernment to guide the development of AI. “The task of building today must place our relationship with God at its centre,” Pope Leo writes.
6. The encyclical explains the principles of Catholic social teaching — the dignity of the person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity, solidarity and justice — and proposes them as guides for the development and use of AI. Pope Leo invites people of goodwill into “a shared discernment process” as humanity faces “a change of era,” asking not only what technology can do, but where it is leading us. Catholic social teaching, he writes, offers “principles for thought, criteria for discernment and judgment, and concrete guidelines for action,” helping humanity face the challenges of AI with clarity and responsibility.

Machines

7. People cannot be reduced to machines, measured for their efficiency and valued for their “optimisation.” Artificial intelligence “threatens to normalise an anti-human vision,” Pope Leo writes. “In that vision, the fullness of life is equated with having more, reducing weakness, eliminating uncertainty and exerting total control. When efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimised rather than as persons called to relationship and communion.” Instead, “the quality of a civilisation,” he writes, “is measured not by the power of its means, but by the care it is able to offer, by its ability to recognise the other as a face not merely as a function.”
8. Robust ethical consideration should be given to AI’s impact on war. Pope Leo is particularly concerned that AI, “detached from ethics and responsibility, will render decisions about life and death more rapid and impersonal, and will present the use of force as an immediate and viable option.” In calling for the principles of Catholic social teaching to serve as decision-making guidelines, he condemns “the spread of a culture of power characterised by polarisation and violence.” Instead, he calls humanity to “the civilisation of love,” which is “no naïve utopia, but a demanding project, which consists in translating charity into structures of justice, giving institutional form to fraternity, and regarding others – whether individuals or peoples – as allies necessary for building the common good.” He also gives criteria for using AI in war.

No computational system, however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil”

9. At its heart, Magnifica Humanitas argues that artificial intelligence must serve relationship rather than replace it. Pope Leo points throughout the encyclical to humanity’s relationship with God and with one another, insisting that AI should help build “a universal human family” rather than simply make people more efficient or connected. The conclusion roots this vision in Jesus Christ, “the face of the Son of God,” in whom the grandeur of humanity is fully revealed. “No computational system, however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil,” Pope Leo writes. Even in the age of AI, the human face remains “the centre of our history.”

Conversion

10. The encyclical calls for personal conversion. The pope proposes for the Christian “a sober yet demanding program of Christian life with which we can navigate this epochal change in the light of the Gospel” centred on “contemplating God’s plan,” receiving the Eucharist, “building a world centred on the common good,” and praying in union with Mary. He encourages people to cultivate community and in-person relationships, educate young people to love wisdom, spend time with the poor and lonely, be a voice for justice, defend objective truth, and treat the digital world as “a new continent to be evangelised.” His final reflection centres on the “Magnificat,” Mary’s famous canticle glorifying God, recounted in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Pope Leo writes: “In the humble fidelity of daily life, even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilisation of love in our lives.”

Maria Wiering is managing editor of OSV News. Contributing to this story were OSV News’ Vatican Editor Courtney Mares and Digital Editor Megan Marley.