The Holy Spirit in the Machine: Pope Leo XIV faces AI – ABC Religion & Ethics

Pope Leo XIV appeared in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall last week along with Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah. The two men probably disagree on many things, but this time they spoke together about the urgent threat that AI now poses to humanity. But Leo’s new encyclical Magnifica Humanitas is not just a warning about the arrival of the machines. It seeks to bring Catholic intellectual traditions into the emerging debate about the most controversial technology of our time.

The encyclical is primarily about authority: Who gets to define people?

A civilization that measures everything and values ​​only what can be measured will eventually lose the ability to recognize the human, the divine and the indescribable, the pope claims. He fears that moral universalism cannot easily survive technocracy—but it must if human dignity, conscience, and compassion are to continue to thrive.

^{Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah speaks during the presentation of “Magnifica Humanitas” at…}