{"id":57508,"date":"2026-06-01T10:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/57508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:35:09","slug":"opinion-pope-leo-xiv-is-right-about-the-risk-posed-by-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/57508\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Pope Leo XIV is right about the risk posed by AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV\u2019s new encyclical on artificial intelligence<\/a> is a warning to Catholics and non-Catholics alike: Take AI risks seriously, or risk losing our humanity. As Leo writes, \u201cThe risk of dehumanization \u2014 of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means \u2014 is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMagnifica Humanitas,\u201d subtitled \u201cOn Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,\u201d applies to classic teachings of the Catholic Church such as the love of God, the dignity of the human person, and the importance of both rights and responsibilities in pursuing the common good. The pope offers a positive vision of a \u201ccivilization of love\u201d where AI could help \u201cbuild a universal human family.\u201d But he warns that our \u201csignificant spiritual and cultural blindness\u201d may instead lead us to build a new \u201cTower of Babel, relying on power and pride.\u201d A misplaced faith in AI and a technocratic pursuit of efficiency can undermine truth and democracy, deform education, devalue workers, accelerate warfare, and even expand \u201cslavery, (human) trafficking, and the commodification of persons.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

We are both practicing Catholics, so we follow the Holy Father\u2019s teaching. However, all persons of faith, as well as atheists and agnostics, would do well to heed his words. The risks of advanced AI affect all of humanity, and we all must answer the pope\u2019s question: \u201cWhat are we building?\u201d<\/p>\n

Techno-progressives such as Sam Altman and effective accelerationists such as Marc Andreessen have an answer. They maintain that whoever builds the most powerful AI \u2014 leading to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and then artificial superintelligence (ASI) \u2014 will secure a glorious future for humanity.<\/p>\n

Everyday Americans aren\u2019t as convinced. Eight in 10 U.S. adults<\/a> are concerned about AI, citing job loss, impacts on privacy, environmental harms, energy costs and other factors. Most churchgoing Christians<\/a> think that AI may have a harmful influence on the faith, which is why groups from the Southern Baptists<\/a> to the Latter-day Saints<\/a> have issued warnings.<\/p>\n

It is increasingly clear that the only winners in a techno-progressive future are the machines themselves \u2014 and those who merge with them. Leo cautions against the \u201ctranshuman\u201d and \u201cposthuman\u201d ideologies that drive the race to replace humanity in \u201ca futuristic vision of an \u2018enhanced human being\u2019 or \u2018human-machine hybrid.\u2019\u201d His encyclical helps us see how to keep humanity in control, respecting the dignity of those created in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

Again, this is not an \u201canti-AI\u201d stance. Leo calls us to wire true ethics into our AI systems and then to use AI in \u201cthe construction site of our time,\u201d from research labs to local communities, \u201cto rebuild what has collapsed and protect what is threatened.\u201d Leo\u2019s metaphor of a construction site recalls his predecessor Pope St. John Paul II\u2019s term for technology in general, calling it the \u201cworkbench\u201d of humanity.<\/p>\n

Technology is like a workbench for the entire human race, and AI could be its greatest asset, aiding and amplifying many forms of work. But the most powerful AI systems threaten to go beyond this use of technology as a tool. Technologists from the main AI companies say their goal is a\u00a0\u201cgentle singularity\u201d<\/a> where humanity is overtaken and overseen by \u201cmachines of loving grace.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

That is, they seek \u201ca power that claims to dominate the heavens,\u201d Leo cautions. The co-inventor of Apple\u2019s Siri even calls for a \u201cBig Mother\u201d<\/a> to teach, nurture and nudge us, while she looks on from the cloud and smiles down upon us. Normally, children grow up and become responsible parents themselves. But if we build superintelligent AI, how would we not always remain infants before it?<\/p>\n

Hope is a virtue, and Christians are commanded<\/a> to not be afraid. While no American should live their life in fear, AI is putting us to the test. The prospect of an all-powerful AI<\/a> is an antithesis to our human-centric future<\/a>. Today\u2019s AI is already dangerous, and tomorrow\u2019s will be stronger. The technology continues its exponential improvement, and our country is not prepared for the consequences of such unprecedented technological might.<\/p>\n

Leo writes that we need a \u201cmore active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating, and of protecting the opportunities for communities still to be able to participate and ask questions.\u201d Most Americans agree that AI is moving too fast, and twice as many<\/a> are AI pessimists as AI optimists. Voters aren\u2019t naive. They see a technology that threatens millions of jobs<\/a>, displacing workers of all ages. They hear about agentic AI technology autonomously choosing targets in warfare and, in civilian life, going rogue at the expense of the human beings<\/a> who should have control over it.<\/p>\n

Yet in a midterm year, many of America\u2019s candidates and elected officials are not ready, if they even understand advanced AI at all. Our politicians are failing to hold Silicon Valley accountable to the people, when they are not simply doing the industry\u2019s bidding.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Leo has shown us the need to turn from Babel and find a better path<\/a>. He closes his encyclical by teaching us to be like \u201cthe \u2018wise architect\u2019 who, driven by hope for the Kingdom of God, is committed to building the world for the common good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

May we hope, and act in time.<\/p>\n

Brendan Steinhauser is CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI<\/a>. Brian J. A. Boyd, Ph.D., is the U.S. faith liaison for the Future of Life Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV\u2019s new encyclical on artificial intelligence is a warning to Catholics and non-Catholics alike: Take AI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,30025,25,4698,24776,2147,2690,370],"class_list":["post-57508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-ai-encyclical","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-catholic-church","tag-magnifica-humanitas","tag-marc-andreessen","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-sam-altman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}