The Pope and Artificial Intelligence |
Magnifica Humanitas addresses artificial intelligence and the protection of human dignity.
The technology of tomorrow will reflect the human values of today.
The encyclical reminds a species dazzled by its own tools that the tools are made of us.
Something happened that no algorithm predicted. Pope Leo XIV—the first American pope—signed his inaugural encyclical on May 15th, 135 years to the exact day that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed Rerum Novarum, the document that transformed how the world thought about work, dignity, and the rights of workers amid industrial upheaval. The new text, Magnifica Humanitas—“Magnificent Humanity”—addresses artificial intelligence (AI) and the protection of human dignity. And standing beside the Pope at its Vatican presentation on May 25th: Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, one of the world’s most closely watched AI companies.
Let that pairing sit for a moment.
The world is considerably more religious than our Silicon Valley headlines tend to acknowledge. Around 84 percent of the global population identifies with a religious tradition—2.4 billion Christians, 1.9 billion Muslims, more than 1 billion Hindus—and while formal attendance is declining across parts of Western Europe and North America, the Global South carries a different story. In 2025, it is home to 69 percent of all Christians globally, a share projected to reach 78 percent by 2050. Faith is alive, gravitationally shifted, and paying attention. Which makes this moment—a Pope taking AI as his first and most urgent moral concern—considerably larger than the tech press has so far recognised.
What the Encyclical Actually Confronts
The encyclical arrives against a specific backdrop. Our tools are getting more powerful, and opaque. The first official government confirmation of a civilian killed by a fully autonomous weapon........