The timing of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical – essentially a letter to all Catholics providing authoritative teaching on a particular subject – will not be lost on anyone who studies these things. The pope signed his encyclical, which focuses on the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and the need to curb its use especially in warfare, on May 15th. That was exactly 135 years after Leo XIII signed “Rerum Novarum,” an encyclical that focused on the treatment of the working class and became a touchstone of what would be today known as social science. In today’s encyclical, the current Pope Leo warns that “artificial intelligence now demands to be disarmed – freed from logics that turn into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death.“Like nuclear energy, it must be at the service of all and of the common good. Decisions about technology must never be separated from conscience and responsibility,” he writes, while also railing against “algorithms that can block access to healthcare, employment and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice”.While there will inevitably be a backlash against his words – he has previously faced verbal attack from US president Donald Trump over the Iran war – it is hard to argue that his points are completely without merit. Just last week, Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters referred to AI replacing what he described as “lower value human capital”. Not surprisingly, he faced a backlash and apologised for upsetting some colleagues, but his overall point remained. “It is necessary to design systems that are centred on the human person and not solely on performance,” reads the new encyclical. With the IMF warning that AI could impact more than 40 per cent of all jobs in Ireland, Pope Leo’s language of “disarming AI” carries particular resonance.As if to emphasise the useful timing of the encyclical’s publication, it also emerged on Monday that so-called guardrails on some AI models – often held up by the tech industry as proof that AI wouldn’t be misused – can be bypassed in minutes. AI will change most of our lives in some way, whether it will be positive for all of us is not yet clear. Leo’s encyclical puts that concern front and centre. [ Pope Leo urges new rules to ‘disarm’ artificial intelligenceOpens in new window ]