What Does the Pope Say about AI?
How Should Catholics View AI?
We live in a world changing and developing at a speed that can feel overwhelming. New technologies have changed overnight how we work, spend leisure time, learn, interact with each other, and even think. AI appears everywhere, and while it has its useful functions, it has also raised serious concerns. These include privacy, access to accurate information, and protection of people’s jobs. What are the implications for us as Catholics?
Pope Leo’s First Encyclical
Pope Leo XIV addresses these questions in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. “We must ask God for the wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time, particularly technological advances,” the Holy Father says (§4). “Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity … At the same time, each phase of progress has also revealed the ambiguity of tools that can cause harm when not oriented toward the good.”
To illustrate how these tools may be directed toward good or evil, the encyclical uses two images from the Old Testament. One is the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). Mankind set out to make a city that would keep them together and a tower reaching to the heavens. The problem, Pope Leo explains, was that “it was a project conceived without reference to God.” The spirit of Babel was one of pride and self-exaltation, which cut off its people from God and from each other: “When a city is built on pride and the claim to self-sufficiency … the result is not unity, but dispersion” (§7). In the same way, even with all the “connection” that the digital age offers, it can create more isolation than ever, if used without concern for doing right.
The second image is the story of Nehemiah, after the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. Following the Babylonians’ defeat by the Persians, many of the exiles had returned home, but Jerusalem was still in ruins. Nehemiah, the Persian king’s Jewish cupbearer, fasted, prayed, and obtained the king’s permission to return to Jerusalem. On arriving, he explained that he had come with God’s help to repair the city wall. He responded to anyone who objected, gathered others to join him, and organized their efforts. Thanks to this common undertaking, the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt in just fifty-two days (Neh 6:15).
“The narrative shows how the city is reborn, not through the initiative of one man, but through the shared responsibility of all,” says Pope Leo. “It is an undertaking with God at the center, which rebuilds relationships before rebuilding with stones” (§8). This, then, is the choice the digital revolution presents: to selfishly pursue greater profit for whoever can get it, or to work together to use new technologies for everyone’s benefit.
What We Can Do
One major challenge, the Holy Father emphasizes, is not to allow power or wealth to supersede concern for what is right and just. The digital world, on which so many people now depend, cannot be controlled or dictated by a few powerful forces. “Instead, we must build forms of cooperation that respect the various levels of the global community. Pope Leo frankly acknowledges the various dangers. “We cannot consider AI to be morally neutral,” he says (§104), for it always has moral consequences. If it is not directed toward good, it will lead to injustice for many vulnerable people.
At the same time, we would be wrong to think “that the problems are too big and we are too small, and that our choices, therefore, cannot make a difference” (§212). As with Nehemiah’s wall, everyone has a part to contribute. Pope Leo lists several examples: We can choose our words with care, using them for truth, peace, and justice rather than to tear each other down. We can think about how our actions contribute to the well-being of those in need, and choose accordingly. In a time when artificial “connection” so often takes the place of real communication, we can seek to truly know our neighbors. We can cultivate hope and prayer, the wellsprings of any holy effort.
Looking to Mary
Pope Leo concludes by pointing to the example of Our Lady, especially her Magnificat, a prayer of praise to God for casting down the powerful and lifting up the lowly. She, a lowly young woman without worldly power, saw with the eyes of faith that God was accomplishing this wonder. Through her intercession, may we live with the same faith and love, so that “even the era of AI can become a time in which the Holy Spirit brings about the civilization of love in our lives” (§245).
