by InTrieste
As reported by Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV has issued his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, warning that artificial intelligence must serve humanity rather than concentrate power.
Released Monday to mark the 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum, the document frames AI as one of the defining moral and social challenges of the modern age. “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice,” the Pope writes, “either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”
Across five chapters, Leo argues that technology is neither inherently harmful nor neutral, because it reflects the intentions of those who design, finance and regulate it. He warns against systems that erode human dignity, exploit workers or deepen inequality, while urging governments and companies to ensure AI advances the common good.
The encyclical echoes the social teachings of Pope Leo XIII while addressing contemporary concerns surrounding automation, misinformation and the concentration of technological power. At its core is an appeal to “remain human” in an age increasingly shaped by algorithms.
“The world,” the Pope writes, “will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell.”
