What the Catholic Church can teach Silicon Valley about AI
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(RNS) — Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “ Magnifica Humanitas,” has captured the world’s attention in a way that almost no other papal document has. The most prominent moral authority on this topic to date, the pope offers a humanity-wide call to action on artificial intelligence and how it can best reflect “human participation in the divine act of creation.”
In it, he outlines three distinct groups and prompts. First, he says tech creators must interrogate the ultimate purpose of what is being built, ensuring it serves human flourishing rather than mere efficiency. Meanwhile, lawmakers and international bodies must craft binding legal frameworks that prioritize human rights and the common good over market expansion. And, individuals and communities have to resist treating human relationships and identity through the lens of digital metrics and a technocratic paradigm, and choose empathy, mercy and genuine personal encounter instead.
It is crucial that a process and framework is in place to guide this global endeavor. And universities, as powerful conveners and knowledge hubs, are poised…
