Pope Leo XIV, the first US-born pontiff, has released his first encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas, focusing on the ethical and social challenges of artificial intelligence. Presented at the Vatican on May 25 alongside senior Church officials and AI experts, including Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei, the manifesto seeks to safeguard humankind and preserve human dignity.
Describing AI as an anthropological challenge to humanity, Pope Leo denounced the culture of power driving the technology's rapid rise. He called for the most rigorous ethical constraints and urged governments to slow down AI development to prevent the spread of misinformation and the risk of unending war. The pontiff argued that AI should be disarmed to make it human-friendly, warning that the technology's impact now reaches everything from work to war.
The Pope urged that AI data ownership not be left solely in private hands and called for robust regulation to ensure developers prioritize the common good over profit. He further urged policymakers to protect the rights of workers and children while calling for a cooling of competition between AI companies.
In the same document, the pontiff apologized for the Catholic Church's long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as a wound in Christian memory. He connected this historical failure to modern concerns, warning that the digital economy is creating new forms of slavery.