Opinion: Pope Leo XIV is right about the risk posed by AI

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/01/opinion-pope-leo-encyclical-artificial-intelligence/

Publish Date: 2026-06-01 06:09:00

Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence is a warning to Catholics and non-Catholics alike: Take AI risks seriously, or risk losing our humanity. As Leo writes, “The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.”

“Magnifica Humanitas,” subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” applies to classic teachings of the Catholic Church such as the love of God, the dignity of the human person, and the importance of both rights and responsibilities in pursuing the common good. The pope offers a positive vision of a “civilization of love” where AI could help “build a universal human family.” But he warns that our “significant spiritual and cultural blindness” may instead lead us to build a new “Tower of Babel, relying on power and pride.” A misplaced faith in AI and a technocratic pursuit of efficiency can undermine truth and democracy, deform education, devalue workers, accelerate warfare, and even expand “slavery, (human) trafficking, and the commodification of persons.”

We are both practicing Catholics, so we follow the Holy Father’s teaching. However, all persons of faith, as well as atheists and agnostics, would do well to heed his words. The risks of advanced AI affect all of humanity, and we all must answer the pope’s question: “What are we building?”

Techno-progressives such as Sam Altman and effective accelerationists such as Marc Andreessen have an answer. They maintain that whoever builds the most powerful AI — leading to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and then artificial superintelligence (ASI) — will secure a glorious future for humanity.

Everyday Americans aren’t as convinced. Eight in 10 U.S. adults are concerned about AI, citing job loss, impacts on privacy, environmental harms, energy costs and other…

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