Motoko Rich and Elisabetta Povoledo, Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical, NYTimes, May 25, 2026.
Leo’s declaration came in the form of a papal encyclical, an open letter to “all people of good will” that ran to roughly 42,300 words in its English version. It outlined his desire to protect human dignity and agency in an age in which technology threatens to replace humans in many professional and social roles. He presented it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a major A.I. developer, in a symbolic gesture of dialogue between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds.
This, obviously, is a political move. And it makes sense that Anthropic would be chosen to represent the AI industry. For one thing, recent events in the United States (I’m thinking of the contretemps with the Pentagon) have pushed it onto the stage ahead of OpenAI. Then we have machines, that it’s founders split from OpenAI because they felt that OpenAI had lost sight of it’s mission, to develop “safe” AI. Finally, Chris Olah is one of the original researchers in mechanistic interpretability. On the other hand, from my point of view, Anthropic seems no less vulnerable to hubristic overreach than any other AI company. Despite the “feel good” nature of Dario Amodei’s essay, Machines of Loving Grace, his statement from February, 2026, that AGI is imminent, late 2026 or 2027, is not evidence of epistemic humility.
The article foes on:
While emphasizing that “technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity,” he wrote that “the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.”
Among other things, Leo called for:
- government regulation of the private companies that are driving the development of A.I.
- protection and retraining for workers whose jobs are threatened
- education to help students think critically about the technology
- action to protect children from violent, hypersexualized or fake information online that is often generated by A.I.
- safeguards to ensure that humans, not artificial intelligence, remain responsible for all decisions regarding the use of weapons.
Above all he emphasized the importance of retaining a fundamental social role for all human beings. “A society that guarantees employment to only a small fraction of the population, despite having a high level of technical development, risks exposing many to forced inactivity, a lack of responsibility and the absence of daily tasks and stimuli, resulting in human and cultural impoverishment,” he said.
“This creates a paradox of material progress and anthropological regression that undermines the foundations of a just and stable social peace,” he added.
Some background on the encyclical:
Although Leo publicly presented his encyclical on Monday, he formally signed it on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum,” — or “Of New Things” in English — a major encyclical written in 1891 by his namesake, Leo XIII.
The pope’s encyclical was timed to prompt comparisons with that earlier document, which guided Catholic teaching on how to protect workers after the technological and industrial disruptions of the 19th century.
Written amid the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, “Rerum Novarum” sought to safeguard the rights and dignity of the working class and became one of the foundational texts of modern Catholic social teaching. It called on governments to “save unfortunate working people from the cruelty of men of greed, who use human beings as mere instruments for money making,” even as it praised the “discoveries of science.”
In the new encyclical, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity,” Leo struck a similar tone, warning of the new threat to workers posed by artificial intelligence.
Work, he wrote, is more than a way of earning income, but “a requirement of the human condition, a normal path toward maturity, development and personal fulfillment.” He called for “the protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual.”
Leo expressed concern at how emerging A.I. tools might take over many routine tasks and jobs, implicitly devaluing those who do not have the training or ability to perform the work that remains available to humans. Leo wrote of the importance of preserving human dignity and warned of the “insidious” ideology that “suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective.”
Do I detect an opening for Homo ludens? The document also warns about the development of A.I. for wartime use.
Going on:
Although the encyclical includes significant references to scripture and religious teachings, the document in many ways reads like a policy paper from a think tank or a lawmaker.
Hmmm....
Will the document have any effect on the tech industry?
Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University in Northern California, said some technology leaders “will have to take it seriously in a sense,” partly because it provides them with “a moral imperative.”
Writing in the encyclical, the pope recognized the autonomy of governments and private companies. The church, he said, “does not claim to supplant the responsibilities of politics or institutions, but offers itself as a foundation,” urging other institutions to “recognize and promote whatever serves the dignity of persons, the vitality of communities and the common good.”
Others said that an encyclical’s primary targets are the clergy and the faithful.
“I don’t think the ‘tech bros’ in Silicon Valley will listen that much,” said Prof. Noreen Herzfeld, director of a program on technology and ethics at St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minn. “But I think within the church, it will be there as a reference for priests and bishops and particularly for those of us who are educating seminarians or young people.”
I agree with Herzfeld. I doubt that the tech bros care about anything other than money, power, and (personal) glory.
There's more at the link. You can read or download Magnifica Humanitas here.
ADDENDUM: That is to say, the generous, altruistic, and even utopian statements by powerful techbros may be grounded in sincere intentions. But the business environment in which they operate negates those intentions. Furthermore, consider AI Doomers. OpenAI, after all, was founded out of fear of AI Doom. The founders of Anthropic left OpenAI because they felt OpenAI had all but abandoned its commitment to “safe” AI. But just what is their commitment to safety? Well, sure, yes, they’ve held back Mythos from general release.
But they’re continuing on toward Mount AGI, followed by ASI, though they fear/know there’s a possibility of Doom ahead. Why? “Because we’ve got to beat the Chinese”, that’s why. Give me a break. More and more I’m thinking that AI Doom is a way to square the ethical circle, to have your cake and eat it too, to continuing developing AI while knowing that it will likely cause tremendous disruption in the lives of OTHERS, but not the developers, not the developers, who’ll be sitting fat and sassy behind the walls of their gated communities.
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