Echica: Pope Leo XIV on artificial intelligence

Pope Leo XIV has issued his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). It is about safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence (AI). What you will read will be my initial and thus provisional comments after a quick reading of it. Needless to say, this encyclical deserves a more careful and meticulous study, which I plan to do. But I do hope that my comments will encourage readers to read the encyclical itself.

Let me first go to one detail which may be of more of interest to general readers but may not go to the theological substance. You may be wondering why Robert Prevost chose the name Leo. The last Pope of that name was Pope Leo XIII. It has been speculated that the current Pope sees the current situation as somehow similar to European societal conditions that confronted Pope Leo XIII. In the last few decades of the 19th century, the problem was the oppressive condition of workers that arose from the industrial revolution. Pope Leo XIII then wrote Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), the first great social encyclical. This first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV confirms the correctness of the speculation. Indeed, the current Pope explicitly calls technological advances like artificial intelligence as the new thing of our times.

Let us go to the meat of this papal document. Is artificial intelligence a bane or a boon? Does it serve the common good? Here, the current Pope uses two biblical images as an answer. First is the unfinished tower of Babel. The people then wanted to make a name for themselves by constructing a tower that would reach heaven. But since it was self-referential and without any appeal to the divine, God was not pleased. He punished the people by letting them speak several languages resulting in utter confusion. The second image is the prophet Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Before edifices were rebuilt, Nehemiah rebuilt the communities. The people recognized that the rebuilding could only happen with the blessings from God.

The image of the tower of Babel parallels the use of technology for selfish ends. The story of Nehemiah symbolizes a human project with God’s blessing. Pope Leo here is saying that artificial intelligence is not evil in itself. It can be used for the advancement of human welfare. But it is fraught with danger if the aim is only for the self without any reference to God.

After giving an overview of the previous social encyclicals, and enumerating some of the principles that guide Catholic social teachings, Pope Leo XIV describes artificial intelligence. “These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence. In doing so, they often surpass human intelligence in speed and computational capacity, offering tangible benefits across many fields. Yet, this power remains entirely tied to data processing. So-called artificial intelligence do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship and responsibility mean.” In view of this description, it is important to ask, as Pope Leo does, “who controls or dictates artificial intelligence?”

Pope Leo wants us to be aware that artificial intelligence is not morally neutral. What is demanded is responsibility at every stage, “from those who design the system and those who use them.”

Magnifica Humanitas acknowledges that AI can be a tool for dialogue but it can also be a tool “to construct distorted narratives and blur the boundaries between truth and falsehood.” Those who follow political news can easily relate with this warning.

Lastly, let me give my own take on AI specifically from my own perspective as a professor. I am never anti-technology and I can easily acknowledge the advantages of using AI. I welcome this technology and wish it were available to all. With AI, some information is now available at our fingertips. But it has also drastically changed the landscape of teaching. I know of some who create memes with atrociously ungrammatical captions but who can make posts of kilometric length with perfectly constructed sentences as if they are written by graduates of Oxford University. I found it impossible to explain the sudden transformation, until I came to know AI.