Pope Leo XIV says control of artificial intelligence must not remain in the hands “of a few” while warning that technology is fueling world conflicts, setting out his proposals in the first major theological document of his pontificate.
These include protecting the distinctive “grandeur of humanity” amid rapidly changing technology and for the use of AI in warfare to be subject to “the most rigorous ethical constraints.”
While the encyclical focuses on AI, it is a text that goes beyond technological questions and touches on crises facing humanity. Pope Leo said that the “just war” theory – a four-pronged Christian doctrine stating what conditions justify war – is “now outdated,” saying that military force can only be used for “self-defense in the strictest sense.”
He adds that the “litmus test” for social justice is the treatment of migrants and refugees and offered an apology for the church’s involvement in slavery and delay in denouncing the scourge.
The pope, who has made peace-making a central feature of his pontificate, warns that the use of “force, violence and weapons” ultimately “has disastrous consequences for civilian populations.”
