Today in Rome with co-founder of Anthropic, Pope Leo XIV released a major new encyclical – his first – entitled “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”). It calls for AI to be “disarmed” in the service of the common good.
“Words are strong,” Leo admits, but he deliberately chose the language of “disarming” “because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening conscience and showing the way forward for humanity.” AI today must be freed from “the logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death.”
The 40,000-word encyclical includes unflinching criticisms of AI-powered autonomous weapons, neo-colonial approaches to data collection and the hoarding of “new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data”.
But the letter goes far beyond criticism, updating Catholic social teaching in a way that calls everyone to “build back” – a favorite term of Silicon Valley elites. (See venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s famous 2020 essay, “It’s Time to Build.”)
However, in Leo’s eyes, this “building” extends beyond code or startups or factories or housing. He wants nothing less than the creation of a “civilization of love” in which everyone works for the common good in his or her sphere of life and in which technology does not dominate, exclude or sideline humanity, but serves and enhances it.
That is why, despite releasing it today, Leo actually signed this encyclical on May 15, the anniversary of the famous encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (“New Things”) of 1891. That old document established Catholic social teaching during an era of capitalist turmoil that largely favored workers and labor unions. Today, Leo updates the Church’s social teaching for the age of AI, which he calls “race nova of our time.”
that new thing
As his predecessor did 135 years earlier, Leo warned that individual humans and humanity should not be left behind by technological progress or new forms of power. Today he has a clear opinion about the dominance of the technological elite, and compares them to the colonial conquerors.
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