A.I.: I read Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical. I’m astounded by what he wrote.
A.I.: I read Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical. I’m astounded by what he wrote.
https://slate.com/technology/2026/05/artificial-intelligence-pope-leo-encyclical.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-28 17:02:00
Source Domain: slate.com
The online reaction to Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, a 42,000-word tome focused on artificial intelligence and published by the Vatican on Monday, has seemingly positioned the Catholic figurehead as an ally of the global resistance to automated technology. Infographics, memes, social media posts, and various analyses have highlighted particular snippets—the Lord of the Rings quote, the call to “disarm” A.I., the comparison of the technology to the Tower of Babel—to frame the 240-page document as a manifesto for the Butlerian Jihad, a reassurance to those wishing to counter the ambitions of accelerationist tech bros. The encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (in English, “Magnificent Humanity”), appears to be another gesture of goodwill from the most relatively progressive and memeable pope of our time.
Still, for however enjoyable the gags and interpretations of subliminal shots have been this week, I find this reading a touch reductive—not merely because the first American pope presented this text with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah at his side (and granted him a few remarks), or because the Vatican explicitly solicited the input of Big Tech executives while preparing this document. (Indeed, some believe he didn’t go hard enough against A.I.) Rather, having taken the past few days to read through and digest the entire 240-page encyclical, I find what Leo has accomplished here to be something truly remarkable: an affirmative vision for how humans should approach the A.I. future, one that takes seriously the very real harms of the tech while insisting throughout on the need to make it better, to actually fulfill the utopian promises promulgated by Silicon Valley. For all the explicit and widely shared concerns Leo names throughout, there is a through line of genuine love for humanity and what we can do at our best—including with the machines at our side.
Magnifica Humanitas does not shy away from spelling…
