Pope Leo to address human dignity in the age of AI
Pope Leo to address human dignity in the age of AI
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pope-leo-address-human-dignity-age-ai-rcna345744
Publish Date: 2026-05-24 08:00:00
Source Domain: www.nbcnews.com
Pope Leo XIV is set to release a landmark encyclical Monday focused on preserving human dignity in the face of AI.
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The pope, who has been outspoken about AI’s potential to encroach on human values, will be joined in Vatican City by leading Catholic figures and Chris Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic.
The document will be Leo’s first encyclical, a special papal letter that is sent to all bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. The encyclical, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” comes amid growing backlash to AI’s environmental, social and educational impacts.
“We are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human,” Leo said Friday at a Vatican conference on AI, highlighting “the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity and the damage caused when chatbots and other technologies exploit our need for human relationships.”
Leo has made AI a focus of his young tenure. Just days after his election in May 2025, the pope told the College of Cardinals that the church could offer unique advice on how to approach “developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
At the time, the pope said he chose his name partially in homage to Pope Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” shared teachings on how to navigate another transformative period, the industrial revolution.
Last week, Leo XIV also approved the creation of a new interdepartmental Vatican commission to discuss and exchange information about AI’s “potential effects on human beings and on humanity as a whole.”
Leo signed the new encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the signing of “Rerum Novarum,” and will release it Monday. In an unusual move, the pope will deliver an address to accompany the encyclical.
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