THE Pope, condemning the “culture of power” surrounding artificial intelligence, has called for urgent moves to safeguard humanity from new and emerging threats.
“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,” Pope Leo writes in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.
“Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world.”
This statement begins the 47,000-word teaching document, presented on Monday in the Synodal Hall in the Vatican.
It is expected to inform the debate on AI and human relationships which the Archbishop of Canterbury is to host in the House of Lords on 5 June.
The analogy of the Tower of Babel is fitting to AI threats, the Pope writes, because it recalls “a city built on pride” in which people “no longer understand each other” — and where human dignity is “sacrificed for efficiency” with an aspiration “to reach heaven without God’s blessing”.
The subsequent rebirth of Jerusalem — rediscovering a common language that placed God at its centre — serves as a reminder that dehumanisation can be resisted, he suggests, as can “an idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralises differences, and the pretence that a single language, even a digital one, can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance”.
The encyclical continues: “In light of these two images, the Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution.
“Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it. Therefore, the primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.”
The encyclical was signed on 15 May, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, on the dignity of work, which is widely regarded as having initiated modern Roman Catholic social doctrine.
Pope Leo XIV writes that digitalisation, AI, and robotics, which are “rapidly and profoundly” transforming the world, highlight a need for “regulatory tools capable of upholding justice” — especially when the main drivers are now “private, often transnational parties” who are unresponsive to the common good and have resources surpassing “those of many governments”.
He writes: “Today, the human desire for fullness of life is at risk of being misled by deceitful goals, such as the prospect of a technology that promises to free us from all weakness, and models of wellbeing that leave behind entire populations.
“The Church reminds us, with a firm yet humble voice, that true fulfilment is not achieved by eliminating weakness but through harmonious growth. It is found where freedom and responsibility are intertwined with mutual care and true solidarity, and where progress is measured by the dignity of each person and the good of all peoples.”
The encyclical, the first to be presented in person by a Pope, was introduced by a seven-member panel, whose members included the British theologian Professor Anna Rowlands, of Durham University, and Christopher Olah, the 33-year-old co-founder of the Anthropic AI company, whose personal worth, according to Forbes magazine, is $7 billion.
In an interview with Vatican News after the encyclical was released, Professor Rowlands warned: “There is not a tomorrow to begin thinking about these issues, because their impact on workplaces, on labour, on immigrants, on families, on political society, and on conflicts globally is now, and was yesterday, and will continue tomorrow as well.”
She continued: “There’s a kind of hope that somehow, and the Holy Father says this in the document, that maybe somebody else will think about these things. But we have to think about them, and we have to think about them together.”
Magnifica Humanitas surveys the development of Catholic social teaching since the late 19th century, via the Second Vatican Council and the pronouncements of recent popes, each of whom brought to light “different aspects of a single heritage: the dignity of the person, the value of work, the universal destination of goods, solidarity and subsidiarity, care for creation and the centrality of peace and fraternity”.
While Catholic social teaching “enshrines a core set of unchanging truths”, the encyclical says, it is also “a living reality, in dialogue with history, cultures, and sciences”, while engaging with civil society and public institutions to “listen, discern and interpret the signs of the times”.
Reflecting on AI in the chapter “Technology and dominance”, Magnifica Humanitas refers to Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, which warned against a “technocratic paradigm”. This, Pope Leo writes, has since been fuelled by “the expansion of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology”.
In many instances, these are controlled, not by states, but by “major economic and technological actors” who “effectively set the conditions for access”, and design automated systems reflecting their unstated “moral vision” and “ideological bias”, shaping information and the pattern of consumption while steering “economic dynamics to their own advantage, undermining social justice and solidarity among peoples”.
“As with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise and access to data”, the encyclical says. “Yet this power remains entirely tied to data processing.
“So-called artificial intelligences do not have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences.
“They may imitate language, behaviour and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom.”
As Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas is likely to shape public perception of his year-long papacy, which has seen public tensions with the Trump administration, and prompted speculation over the Pope’s approach to moral and social issues.
The Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rt Revd Professor Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, welcomed the encyclical as an opportunity to enrich church discussions on the fact that “Technological development has gained such momentum that the rules ensuring its responsible use have not kept pace.”
His statement continued: “One of the goals is to establish effective mechanisms to protect freedom and human dignity against data corporations whose monopoly power is now virtually uncontrollable. Especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, the core issue is also the concept of humanity.”
The WCC’s General Secretary, the Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, said: “The WCC applauds and commends Magnifica Humanitas to all people, not just people of faith, for study, reflection, and action as we seek to build a better world for all people and creation.”
The British Roman Catholic charity CAFOD was among the first to respond to the encyclical. Its CEO and director, Christine Allen, said that the “message speaks of the inherent dignity of humankind. We are not simply instruments of production but living beings, entrusted with a moral compass. In a world full of imbalances, we have a duty to use AI responsibly. . . These systems can reflect the interest and biases of their creators, and the Holy Father warns us of the obvious risk: that AI used wrongly has the power to increase inequality in our world.”
A “keen mathematician”, the Pope, when an American cardinal, had held many meetings from Silicon Valley leaders. Magnifica Humanitas would deliver “a challenge to the world” by giving his Church’s response to “questions everyone is asking: ‘Do human beings matter more than machines? and if so, ‘Why?’”
In a statement, the RC Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Eamon Martin, described it as a “much needed intervention. . . From Ireland’s point of view, the development of Artificial Intelligence is not an abstract issue or something happening far away.”
At its heart, “lies the conviction of faith that the human person is made in the image and likeness of God”, and he invited public leaders across sectors “to take up this encyclical with seriousness and courage”.
The encyclical quotes writers including Hannah Arendt and J. R. R. Tolkien, and praises activists from Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to Dorothy Day and Benazir Butto, who, it says, have “contributed to making history more humane”.
It calls for a “Christian humanism” capable of “disarming AI” by rebutting “the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern”. It also rejects ideological concepts such as “transhumanism” and “posthumanism”, which offer “a futuristic vision of an ‘enhanced human being’ or ‘human-machine hybrid’”.
A chapter on “safeguarding humanity” calls for democracy to be protected from AI distortions that “blur the boundaries between truth and falsehood”, and urges a stronger part to be played by the media, schools, trade unions, and welfare organisations to protect families and young people against sexual exploitation, as well as fake profiles, dangerous algorithms, and manipulated images and videos.
“The search for truth is an essential element of democracy, which is itself a means of contributing to the common good — when questions about what is true lose their appeal, and a pragmatism takes hold that is content with what appears useful or effective, then democratic life is weakened,” Pope Leo warns.
“After all, democracy does not consist of rules and procedures alone, but above all of a solid concordance with the facts and a genuine commitment to the good of individuals and society as a whole. Indifference to the truth leads, slowly but surely, to a descent into totalitarianism.”
A final chapter in the 150-page text warns that the digital revolution is also changing the nature of conflict, through the development of AI weapons systems, set alongside a crisis in multilateralism, erosion of historical memories, and deliberate encouragement of “polarisation and resentment”.
It calls for a “healthy realism that avoids both political idealism and cynicism”, and a fight against “new forms of slavery and colonialism” brought by criminal online platforms and unscrupulous digital infrastructures.
“When people come to believe that nothing is genuinely true and that principles are hollow words, then the fuse in their hearts is lit for new eruptions of intolerance and aggression,” Pope Leo writes.
“Public opinion is gradually being shaped and conditioned by polarising media narratives, which are often amplified by algorithms that prioritise conflict and confrontation. . . It is in this context that humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on, but as a fragile interval between conflicts.”