In standing up for human dignity over AI, Pope Leo sets the example for other world leaders
In standing up for human dignity over AI, Pope Leo sets the example for other world leaders
Publish Date: 2026-05-31 05:30:00
Source Domain: www.inquirer.com
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Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping human life in ways that can be beneficial and harmful while also posing many unknowns as the technology leaps forward by the day.
AI has already impacted every corner of our world, from big and small businesses to healthcare, government, education, and human relationships. While some have sounded the alarm about job losses, cyberattacks, invasion of privacy, misinformation growth, and a “Terminator-style” takeover, many of the fears have not been properly confronted.
Most Big Tech companies — including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic — are more focused on spending billions in a race to be the dominant player and reap huge profits.
Of course, the Trump administration — which values incompetence and self-dealing — has done little substantive policy planning beyond pushing for deregulation and fast-tracking the development of data centers. (Hours after returning to the White House, Donald Trump signed an executive order canceling the AI safeguards implemented during the Biden administration.)
With the tech bros focused on making a fortune, and Trump caring mainly about Trump, it was a welcome relief to see a grown-up step into the AI debate.
Pope Leo XIV issued a 42,300-word papal encyclical, or open letter to “all people of good will,” that warned business and political leaders of the need to protect humanity from the massive disruption coming because of AI.
While the Vatican could use an editor to tighten and simplify some of the U.S.-born pontiff’s more lofty points, his message was a clarion call: The AI race could become “a new Tower of Babel” if power, profit, and data take precedence over safety, equality, dignity, and human interaction.
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The pope also warned that AI could destabilize democracies…
