AI
Pope Forms AI Study Group Ahead of First Encyclical
Pope Leo XIV has established an internal Vatican study group on artificial intelligence, days before issuing his first papal document on the subject.
The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Leo XIV has created an internal study group dedicated to artificial intelligence, as he prepares to release his first papal document on the topic. The move comes amid what the Vatican described as a rapid acceleration in AI adoption and its potential consequences for humanity.
The pope decided to form the group because of the swift spread of AI technologies and “the effects they may have on people and all of humanity, based on the Church’s concern for the dignity of every human being,” the Vatican said in a statement.
Historical Parallels and Church Doctrine
The announcement arrived one day after the pope signed his encyclical, and exactly 135 years after his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, signed his landmark encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (or “Of New Things”). That 19th-century document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations of states and employers toward laborers during the Industrial Revolution.
“Rerum Novarum” is considered the foundation of modern Catholic social teaching. The current pope has already cited it in the context of the AI revolution, arguing that the technology raises the same existential questions the Industrial Revolution posed a century and a half ago.
The forthcoming encyclical is expected to frame AI within the Church’s social teachings, which also cover labor, justice, and peace.
Expert Commentary
Megan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of the university’s Institute for Ethics, said: “I think the Catholic Church will be, in many ways, the voice of reason in discussions about how to integrate AI into our society. There is no doubt the pope will be one of the strongest advocates for human dignity in this regard.”
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