Magnifica humanitas: a call to stay human in the age of algorithms

On 25 May, Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical Magnifica humanitas was presented, a historic milestone as it challenges us in the face of one of the greatest challenges of our time: artificial intelligence.

On the 135th anniversary of Leo XIII's Rerum novarum, the ceremony was attended by the Pontiff and Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic and a world leader in AI interpretability research, a gesture that reveals the Church's willingness to open a profound dialogue with those at the forefront of technology.

The encyclical starts from a luminous premise: technology is neither an enemy of the person nor an evil in itself, but neither is it neutral. It takes on the face of those who conceive, finance and regulate it. This is why the Pope invites us to "make technology grow without the heart shrinking back", reminding us that human frailty is not a defect to be corrected, but the place where God dwells and where our true greatness is revealed.

The document warns of the risks of technological power concentrated in a few hands, capable of manipulating public opinion and reducing people to cogs in ever more efficient systems.

It reminds us that no algorithm can make war morally acceptable and that the use of artificial intelligence in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints. It also points to the environmental impact of these technologies, which consume enormous amounts of energy and water, affecting Creation.

But Magnifica humanitas is not a text of rejection, but of hope. The Pope proposes to recognise the social function of new forms of property such as data, algorithms and digital platforms; to establish adequate legal frameworks and systems of independent supervision; to educate users in critical and responsible use; and to avoid monopolies that impose inevitable rules under technocratic logics. Its call to "disarm AI" does not mean renouncing innovation, but preventing it from dominating the human, so that technology becomes debatable, questionable and therefore liveable.

In short, this encyclical reminds us that the centre of history is still a human face that begs to be looked at. It invites us to build the "civilisation of love" with small daily fidelities capable of curbing dehumanisation. In the age of algorithms, Leo XIV exhorts us to remain profoundly human, not to let technical power eclipse dignity, and to trust that our fragility, far from being a limit, is the root of what is most magnificent in our humanity.

Full document: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/es/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#Edificar_en_el_bien