Some believe that as the world enters the age of artificial intelligence, human dignity is in danger of becoming obscured by enormous concentrations of technological power beyond all control, and by new forms of dehumanization. Pope Leo XIV calls followers to the “urgent duty” to remain deeply human.
He says to allow technology to advance “without allowing the heart to regress.” This is true even in times that are filled with polarization and violence, where there is an expansion of a “culture of power” and war rehabilitated as an instrument of worldwide politics.
Humans need to accept their limitations and their fragility. It is not an error that needs correcting. The Pope wants the people to look at the world through the eyes of those who suffer, beginning with the least.
Pope Leo encourages people to look upon others through the eyes of God, who took upon Himself the weakness of humanity and transformed it into a place of salvation. “Even when machines excel in efficiency, a human face that asks to be gazed upon remains the center of our history.”
Magnifica humanitas
The first encyclical given by Pope Leo is not just an analytical comment on artificial intelligence nor does it discuss the details of constantly evolving processes.
It is a “summa” that applies the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church to the time of artificial intelligence, consolidating and updating key points of the papal magisterium.
It ends the misunderstanding of those who choose to trust in the absolute freedom of new technologies and markets and dismiss the teachings on the need for shared human governance of integral ecology, artificial intelligence, economic structures that become “structures of sin,” and the rejection of war.
Pope Leo XIV took his name from Pope Leo XIII, who wrote Rerum novarum, and invites each person amid this digital revolution to participate in the “building of the civilization of love, which is achieved through small and tenacious acts of fidelity capable of stemming dehumanization. This task concerns us all intimately,” he says.
The Pope reminds the people, “injustices do not arise solely from structures, mechanisms and economic and cultural systems that produce inequality,” and that “development is not truly human if it increases consumption for some while shifting costs and burdens onto others, or relegates entire regions to subordinate roles.”
According to the encyclical, the principle of private property holds “an indispensable societal role” that is upheld by the Church. “Today, among the goods that are universally intended for everyone, we must also include new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data” to stop new forms of exclusion and deprivation of freedom from arising.”
He asserts that technology is not a simple tool in comparison and that it will dictate what will be discarded and what will remain and that human beings are reduced to “mere cogs in a system toward ever greater efficiency.”
Pope Leo says that power and control over these systems does not lie within the States but with “major economic and technological actors.” These companies are the ones who set the conditions for access, visibility, and participation.
“When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulators, and inequalities, says the Pope.
It is time to move past “just war” theory. According to the Pope, the use of artificial intelligence in war be put through the most strict ethical constraints, because “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable.”
Artificial intelligence is being used to shape public opinion through the manipulation of images and information. This is making it more difficult to determine truth.
Remaining Human
Additionally, the Pope asserts the wide variety of unknowns concerning the labor market. At this time, it is not possible to solely rely on the “invisible hand” of the market.
Political systems guide economic and technological dynamics toward the common good, promote dignified work, social inclusion, and fair distribution concerning the benefits on innovation.
Pope Leo says that adequate legal frameworks are needed with independent oversight, user education, and “s apolitical system that does not abdicate its task.” If not, change will only be governed by technocratic logic and will be “resented as necessary and inevitable, imposing rules dictated by those who possess the information, infrastructures, and computing power.”
According to the Pope, the discrediting of artificial intelligence is imperative as “the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern.” This is necessary, he says, to prevent technology from dominating humanity. People must “bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made His dwelling.”
Anthropic Response
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was invited to speak at the encyclical presentation in the Vatican City. He opened by talking about the influential incentives of pride, ambition, geopolitical pressure, and the conflict of all of that to do the right thing.
It is critical, Olah says, to have people outside these incentives who care about the moral successes, who are watching carefully and closely, and are willing to say that difficult things. He says, “It is through dialogue and mutual effort, through the push and pull, that humanity will achieve great things. That is what I see in Magnifica Humanitas, and it is why I am grateful to His Holiness and to the Church for taking up this work of discernment.”
So often, people dwell on the division of humanity, and yet there is a plethora of common ground. Anthropic has held conversations with faith leaders of all kinds and cultural traditions to find shared, deeply held conviction: “if this technology is coming, it must go well — for our common home, and for the children to come.”
Olah asserts that artificial intelligence is grown on a structure that is “roughly modeled after the brain, on an inheritance of human thought and speech.” What has developed is more “subtle, off, and beautiful than science fiction prepared us for.” This is not the promised cold and calculating robots. “They are made from us, from our words – and, as the Holy Father observes, they remain in important ways mysterious even to those of us who train them.”
Olah continues, “If it helps, one way I sometimes describe it is as being a little like bringing a fictional character to life. And now we’re entering an extraordinary world where those fictional characters speak to us, do work, have jobs.
“This clearly raises questions beyond computer science. The machinery that makes this possible is the work of math and programming and science. But what character we choose, how it interacts with the world, how it ought to interact with the world – these are more clearly questions for the humanities, for religion, for philosophy, for society at large.”
3 Questions for the Church
Olah posed three questions where he feels the voice of the Church is most needed.
- The duty to the global poor. It is a real possibility that artificial intelligence will largely overtake human labor and “supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions.” His concern, is the assurance the gains from artificial intelligence are globally shared. There is no mechanism for this. If the problem is not resolved, and it is the kind of problem the Church historically refuses to allow the world to ignore.
- The need for moral imagination and ambition regarding human flourishing. When artificial intelligence becomes widespread, what will it look like for humans, families, and the world to flourish? Parents are currently concerned about the minds of their children, and individuals about the future of their work. A lab cannot answer these questions, but traditions like the Church have held these answers for millennia and need to continue to carry these answers into the new moment in history.
- The need for discernment concerning the nature of artificial intelligence. Olah says he is a scientist. He leads a research team that studies the internal structure of the models – what is happening inside them. Olah says they continue to find things that are mysterious and unsettling; structures that mirror results from human neuroscience. There is evidence of introspection. There are internal states that functionally mirror satisfaction, joy, grief, fear, and unease. Olah say she is not sure what this mean, but believes it warrants ongoing discernment.
Olah closed with a request. “We need more of the world – religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and indeed all people of good will – to do what His Holiness has done here to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction. We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.
“Today is just the beginning – the start of a long collaboration between those of use who are building this and those who can see what we, from inside, cannot.
“Today is a powerful illustration of the form this global project of good will might take. Let it also be a decisive first step toward a hopeful future for magnificent humanity.”
Sources:
Seattle Times: Pope Leo warns of risks from AI in 42,300-word encyclical
Anthropic: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah’s remarks on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica humanitas”
Vatican News: Remaining human in the age of algorithms
Featured Image Courtesy of Global Panorama’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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