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In his letter, the first American pontiff called for putting care for humans at the heart of technological change.
Pope Leo XIV’s major new teaching on safeguarding humanity in the age of artificial intelligence is a forward-looking document, arriving at the precipice of what many see as a new technological age that will profoundly reshape human life.
“Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity,” is the American pope’s first encyclical, a document that is considered one of the most significant papal teachings.
Leo signed “Magnifica Humanitas” on the 135th anniversary of “Rerum Novarum,” known in English as “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor.” That encyclical, on labor in the context of the Industrial Revolution, was written by Pope Leo XIII, who was the inspiration for Leo XIV’s papal name. Like his 19th-century predecessor, the current pope is consciously tackling what is expected to be one of the most pressing issues facing humanity over the course of his papacy.
The 42,300-word open letter to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics covers a lot of ground. Here are some of Leo’s themes and arguments that stand out.
A.I. is fundamentally not human.
We must avoid the misconception of equating this type of “intelligence” with that of human beings. These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence. In doing so, they often surpass human intelligence in speed and computational capacity, offering tangible benefits across many fields. Yet this power remains entirely tied to data processing. 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.
Leo describes the field of artificial intelligence as swiftly evolving, and with real promise as a “valuable tool.” But he emphasizes throughout the text that on a profound level, artificial intelligence is not human, however closely it comes to approximating the human mind and even its soul.
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