AI

Amid the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and digital media, Pope Leo XIV is calling on families, schools and policymakers to forge an “educational alliance for the digital age” to protect the dignity and intellectual development of young people.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” addressed sexual exploitation as one of the human dignity concerns posed by AI.

Presenting the first encyclical of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence must be “disarmed,” urging governments, tech leaders and society to confront the rapidly growing technology before it weakens human relationships, critical thinking and peace itself.

Pope Leo XIV called for vigilance as he spoke at the Vatican press conference May 25 to present his first encyclical on artificial intelligence, saying his conversations with industry leaders — including “very troubling voices” who warned of autonomous weapons systems beyond effective human governance — had led him to the conviction that AI “needs to be disarmed.”

Just as it did in the industrial age, the Catholic Church is called to discern the rapidly evolving advances of digital technology in the light of the Gospel, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Pope Leo XIV published his landmark encyclical on artificial intelligence “Magnifica Humanitas” May 25, comparing the attempt to build an AI future that excludes God to the “Tower of Babel” and underlining the need to safeguard human dignity as it is “threatened by new forms of dehumanization.”