Pope Leo XIV AI Encyclical Speech
FULL SPEECH: Pope Leo XIV Warns AI “Needs To Be Disarmed”
In Explosive Vatican Speech |
Like the earlier “Leo”, I feel entrusted to look upon another huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery, and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart.
IMAGE OF DISARMAMENT
From this listening matured a disturbing conviction expressed in Magnifica Humanitas: artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.
The Church has long been working for nuclear disarmament, aware that every great technical power can affect people’s lives and so must be accompanied by adequate moral discernment and public control. Nuclear disarmament remains a service to peace and the dignity of the human family.
CONSTRUCTION SITE IMAGE
Disarming, however, is not enough. We must build.
The word “build” reminds me of my years as a missionary in Peru. In 2017, torrential rains and floods struck the north of the country: many families saw their homes swallowed by mud, and many roads, too. There I learned that rebuilding does not mean simply replacing what has been destroyed. It means repairing bonds, restoring trust, and reawakening hope in the future. Moreover, no one rebuilds alone.
In Magnifica Humanitas, I recall the biblical prophet Nehemiah. Before the ruined walls of Jerusalem, he gathers discouraged people to bring about rebirth. The image of walls does not legitimize closures or divisions, but invites each and everyone to do their part. Brick by brick, a more just coexistence takes shape, capable of safeguarding the dignity of all. Nehem
iah’s effort speaks to our time. Artificial intelligence can be a construction site of history from within a horizon of communion, in which technical progress learns to serve human life.
CIVILIZATION OF LOVE
True development, says St Paul VI, always concerns “each man and the whole man.” “Each” means that no person can be left at the margins of digital transformation. “Whole” means that no one can be reduced to productivity, to cognitive performance, or to mere data. The person bears within him- or her-self a freedom, an interiority and a vocation to love and worship that no machine can replace or block.
Only with such an integral vision can artificial intelligence be directed toward the common good. Only together — those who design systems and those affected by them, richer countries and poorer ones, institutions and individuals, power centres and peripheries — will we be able to build a future, not for a privileged few, but for the entire human family.
ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON
IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
INTRODUCTION
The res novae of our time
Two biblical images
Building for the common good
Remaining human
CHAPTER ONE
A DYNAMIC APPROACH FAITHFUL TO THE GOSPEL
A Church journeying through human history
The wisdom of the word of God in dialogue with the human sciences
Social Doctrine as a shared discernment
The development of Social Doctrine from Leo XIII to the present
The first stages of the Church’s Social Doctrine
The years of the Second Vatican Council
The recent Magisterium
Interpreting history in the light of faith
CHAPTER TWO
FOUNDATIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
The foundations of Social Doctrine
The human person: image of the Triune God
The equal dignity of all human beings
The supreme value of human rights
The principles of Social Doctrine
The principle of the common good
The principle of the universal destination of goods
The principle of subsidiarity
The principle of solidarity
The principle of social justice
Integral human development
An examen for the Church
CHAPTER THREE
TECHNOLOGY AND DOMINANCE.
THE GRANDEUR OF HUMANITY IN LIGHT OF THE PROMISES OF AI
The technocratic paradigm and digital power
Artificial intelligence
A valuable tool that requires vigilance
Responsibility, transparency and the governance of AI
What must not be lost
Underlying narratives: transhumanism and posthumanism
The limit, the heart, the grandeur of the human person
The authentic “more than human”: grace and Christian humanism
Two cities and two loves
CHAPTER FOUR
SAFEGUARDING HUMANITY AT A TIME OF TRANSFORMATION.
TRUTH, WORK, FREEDOM
Truth as a common good
Truth and democracy
Communication and the collective imagination
Toward an ecology of communication
An educational alliance for the digital age
The central role of schools
The dignity of work at a time of digital transition
The value of work
The problem of unemployment
An economy that values dignity
Families and young people: the social conditions for hope
Protecting freedom against dependencies and commercialization
Dependencies and societal control
Breaking the chains of new forms of slavery
A shared responsibility
CHAPTER FIVE
THE CULTURE OF POWER AND THE CIVILIZATION OF LOVE
The civilization of love in the digital age
The culture of power
The normalization of war
Force without limits
Weapons and artificial intelligence
The crisis of multilateralism
A supposed political realism
Building the civilization of love
We can all do our part
The need to disarm words
Building peace through justice
Adopting the perspective of victims
Cultivating a healthy realism
Reviving dialogue
The necessity of diplomacy and multilateralism
Praying and hoping
CONCLUSION
The Word became flesh
One body in Christ
The construction site of our time
The song of hope: the Magnificat