Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ driving rise of AI | Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo denounces the “culture of power” driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and stresses the need for its development to be subject to “the most rigorous” ethical constraints.
In his encyclical ‘Magnifesta Humanitas,’ Leo apologizes for the Catholic Church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory,” and warns about the “new forms of slavery” caused by the digital economy.
He highlights the problematic revival of war as an instrument of international politics, and particularly warns that AI is helping to facilitate the “normalization of war,” emphasizing the need to subject AI in warfare to rigorous ethical constraints to preserve human dignity and life.
Leo points out that power over digital systems and data primarily rests with major economic and technological actors, not states, and concerns that when this power is concentrated, it can evade public oversight and lead to distorted development, exclusions, manipulations, and inequalities.
It marks the first major text on safeguarding humankind for Pope Leo, the first US-born pope, who himself views AI as one of the biggest threats to humanity today.

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