What the Pope's encyclical on artificial intelligence is really about
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical titled "Magnifica Humanitas." Dedicated to "protecting the human person in the age of artificial intelligence," this 200-page document uses AI as a gateway to analyze deeper issues facing humanity: inequality, war, the weakening of democracy, and the concentration of power in the hands of a narrow elite. This is reported by Techcrunch.com reports .
In the document, presented alongside Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, the Pope emphasized that technologies controlled by a small group cannot serve the common good. According to Leo XIV, when such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it loses transparency and evades public oversight, leading to new forms of dependency, manipulation, and social exclusion.
The encyclical warns that AI technologies could further empower those who control economic resources and data, allowing elites to shape information flows and influence democratic processes. This statement comes at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump has delayed signing an executive order aimed at bringing new AI models under government control.
Pope Leo XIV called for a halt to the AI race and for the recognition that technical power does not automatically grant the right to govern. According to him, the struggle for algorithms and datasets must not become a tool for achieving geopolitical or commercial dominance. While this dynamic echoes the problems of the Industrial Revolution, the influence of technomagnates like Elon Musk on politics today makes the situation even more complex.
Paolo Carozza, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, told TechCrunch that disinformation and deepfake content spread via AI are undermining our ability to perceive reality. The practice of collecting and manipulating human data poses a serious threat to individual cognitive freedom.
