Pope Leo XIV highlights AI risks in first encyclical
Pope Leo XIV today issued an encyclical that contains an extensive discussion of artificial intelligence and its risks.
The approximately 43,000-word document is entitled “Magnifica Humanitas”, which is Latin for “Magnificent Humanity.” One of its five core chapters is dedicated entirely to technology’s impact on humanity. The lengthy section places particular emphasis on AI.
Leo XIV opens the chapter with a brief technical overview of AI that draws attention to researchers’ limited understanding of the technology. Model developers, the Pope writes, have not yet fully mapped out the internal representations and calculations that neural networks use to make decisions. “There thus emerges an urgent need for a twofold commitment: on the one hand, a deepening of scientific research; on the other, the exercise of moral and spiritual discernment,” states the encyclical.
The document continues with a discussion of AI’s risks. Leo XIV dedicates an entire subsection to AI-powered autonomous weapons. The encyclical states that both the development of such weapons and their use “must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints.”
