{"id":257795,"date":"2026-05-28T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/the-story-of-pope-leos-landmark-text-on-ai-technology-by-a-member-of-its-launch-panel\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:20:09","slug":"the-story-of-pope-leos-landmark-text-on-ai-technology-by-a-member-of-its-launch-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/the-story-of-pope-leos-landmark-text-on-ai-technology-by-a-member-of-its-launch-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of Pope Leo\u2019s \u2018landmark\u2019 text on AI technology \u2013 by a member of its launch panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of Pope Leo\u2019s \u2018landmark\u2019 text on AI technology \u2013 by a member of its launch panel<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-story-of-pope-leos-landmark-text-on-ai-technology-by-a-member-of-its-launch-panel-283993<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-28 09:48:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

For the last few years, I\u2019ve been seconded to assist the Catholic Church\u2019s unprecedented global grassroots listening initiative. Just as that process drew to a close, I received a surprise request: would I help Pope Leo XIV launch his first social encyclical, focused on what it means to be human in a time of artificial intelligence?<\/p>\n

It is difficult to think of a more important theme right now than the impact of digital technologies, AI and robotics \u2013 on every level of our social interactions and structures.<\/p>\n

The Vatican has addressed technological questions before. My research includes the social teaching of popes since 1891, starting with Pope Leo XIII\u2019s influential text \u201cRerum Novarum\u201d, which addressed the impact of the industrial revolution on working people (and which this new text commemorates). A range of previous letters have addressed both the opportunities and dangers of technology.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Vatican does have a chequered history with regard to theological reflection on scientific and medical developments. Over the past decade, it has been pursuing focused and, in my view, productive conversations with the AI tech sector through initiatives such as the Minerva Dialogues \u2013 a series of closed-door conferences with leading figures from both worlds. In this sense, the concern with AI does not spring from nowhere.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, \u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d(\u201cMagnificent Humanity\u201d) was a landmark moment: a papal text addressing AI as its central focus for the first time, launched by a pope in person \u2013 this does not usually happen \u2013 in the presence of the very industry it sought to critique. The encyclical panel on which I sat also included Chris Olah, co-founder of the AI tech firm Anthropic.<\/p>\n

All of this meant a much higher level of media and public interest. In the run-up to launch, the controversy over the make-up of the panel and questions about how equipped a pope is to comment on AI showed me this text would be…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of Pope Leo\u2019s \u2018landmark\u2019 text on AI technology \u2013 by a member of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/738589\/original\/file-20260528-57-yd03ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C505%2C7087%2C3543&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-257795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257801,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257795\/revisions\/257801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}