Artificial intelligence has taken over jobs and schools, but it won’t replace humanity if the Pope has his way. In his May 42,300-word open letter to over a billion Catholics around the world, Pope Leo XIV issued a warning to safeguard humanity against the downsides of AI. “Humanity —in all its grandeur and woundedness— must never be replaced or surpassed,” Pope Leo XIV wrote in his papal document, known as an encyclical. It was titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity.” In this document, the Pope outlined why people should not get confused about what AI can do. Though a “valuable tool,” the Pope acknowledged, this technology will never have a soul. “We must avoid the misconception of equating this type of ‘intelligence’ with that of human beings,” he wrote. “So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean.” The Pope’s strong stance against using AI to replace humanity’s uniqueness has people on social media wondering if they can invoke the Pope’s latest teaching to get out of using AI, which is now embedded in emails, meetings and every part of our day-to-day lives.“The Catholic Church is humanity’s shield against the AI devil. It’s time to start pushing back –– first at work and school,” one Redditor in a popular post speculated. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers must reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs, unless doing so creates an “undue hardship” to a business. Typically, this accommodation can entail schedule changes for religious holidays, or permission to wear a cross necklace or hijab at work. People have also used sincerely-held religious beliefs to get a religious exemption and abstain from getting a COVID vaccine, for example. So could people legally use the Pope’s latest AI warning to get a religious exemption from being forced to use AI at school or work? Maybe, according to employment attorneys. “I believe it is possible that an employee could invoke the Pope’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ encyclical as a religious objection to using AI as part of their job,” said James M. Cooney, a labor and employment law expert in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.Ryan Stygar, an employment attorney and author of the upcoming book, “Get It in Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Your Rights at Work,” said that he expects some employees to successfully request and receive religious exemptions from AI use. But “actually proving you are entitled to the exemption may be the toughest hurdle to meet,” he said. ALBERTO PIZZOLI via Getty ImagesAbove is Pope Leo XIV's encyclical letter titled "Magnifica Humanitas." The document focused on AI's rise and cautioned against its misuse. You don’t need to be Catholic to claim the need for a religious accommodation from AI. You can be a Lutheran, a Baptist or even a Buddhist and invoke the Pope’s teachings, Stygar noted, but you do need to show that you’re sincere about this belief: “The law is less focused in the dogmatic details of your religious beliefs than whether or not belief is sincere,” he said. “Regardless of what’s in the Bible or how different parishes interprets the Pope’s words, if you truly believe it, then Title VII will protect you,” Stygar said. “This can be proved with a letter from a legitimate religious leader or organization.” The process of submitting a religious exemption is simple and usually involves telling your employer that you need an accommodation for a religious reason. But proving that this accommodation is sincerely necessary is much harder.You might need to be regularly attending a church associated with the Pope to prove that the Pope’s AI teachings are actually part of your regular faith.“If you’ve never set foot in a church but then use the Pope’s statement to support a religious exemption, you probably won’t be successful,” Stygar said. “That sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this comes up.”Also, if you have used AI in the past without complaint, then the sincerity of your belief will also be hard to prove. Since AI is an inescapable feature in so many parts of our lives right now, proving that you are purposefully abstaining from AI for your faith could be hard. If you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, or reading Google AI search summaries, or use an AI chatbot to get ideas or plan travel, your anti-AI stance is not consistent. “If you use AI directly, or even if you passively allow AI use in your daily life, you will struggle to prove your faith is consistent, and therefore, whether it is sincere,” Stygar said. Keep in mind that the takeaways of “Magnifica Humanitas” are open to interpretation. “One Catholic practitioner may see the Pope’s words as a call to refrain from AI use at work, while another may not, and both can be reasonable in their belief,” Stygar said.But even though it may take significant documentation for employees to prove their sincere beliefs, employers shouldn’t take this kind of request lightly.Employees have won large sums of money in past fights for religious accommodation linked to technology. In 2017, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a damages award of $587,000 against an employer for failing to accommodate a West Virginia employee’s religious belief that using a biometric hand scanner would mark him to the Antichrist and conflicted with his Christian beliefs.Before you file a religious accommodation request, know the limits of its power. Getting a religious exemption doesn’t mean you can’t be fired one day due to AI. The Pope’s letter may help you abstain from using an AI tool at your job, but it can’t protect you from getting replaced by AI.“The law doesn’t mean you are immune to termination. It means you cannot be fired because of or in retaliation for making the request for a religious exemption,” Stygar said. But even if your employer is not on your side about refusing AI, the Pope might be, if you decide to take a stand for more thoughtful deployment of AI or human dignity amidst this technological revolution. In his letter, Pope Leo XIV said that creating moral AI is not enough if only a few decide what that means, or benefit from its use. “What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating, and of protecting the opportunities for communities still to be able to participate and ask questions,” he wrote.