Pope Leo was perturbed. The speed of change was dizzying. The elements of conflict were unmistakable: the vast expansion of industry, the marvellous discoveries of science, the changing relations between employers and workers, the enormous fortunes being made amid mass poverty and prevailing moral degeneracy. The gravity of the situation “fills every mind with painful apprehension”, he wrote in his landmark papal encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) in 1891.
Exactly 135 years later, the current Pope Leo, who chose his papal name in honour of his predecessor, issued his own encyclical echoing similar fears about the disruptive power of technology and the urgency of a moral response. His letter, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), focused on safeguarding the human in the time of AI. Everyone must benefit from the digital transformation, he said, while no one should be reduced to “productivity”, “cognitive performance” or “mere data”. AI should therefore be “disarmed” and must not become an instrument of “domination, exclusion or death”.
The encyclical is worth a considered read. But three points in particular leap out.