The First Encyclical of the New Pope in Rome, to Save the Common People in the AI Era
New Pope's First Encyclical Aims to Safeguard Humanity in the AI Era
On May 25th, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas," a 40,000-word document addressing the profound challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. Released on the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's "Rerum novarum," it positions itself as a guide for the Church's social doctrine in the AI age.
The encyclical's central concern is preserving deep humanity amid rapid technological advancement. It argues technology is never neutral, carrying the values of its creators and users, and warns against building a "Tower of Babel" of technological tyranny versus a human-centric community. Pope Leo XIV criticizes the concentrated, opaque power of tech giants and the "new forms of slavery" emerging in the digital economy, where humans risk being reduced to mere instruments.
A significant focus is the military use of AI. The Pope declares traditional "just war" theory obsolete, arguing that delegating lethal decisions to opaque algorithms severs moral accountability. He calls for "disarming AI" from military and economic arms races. The document also warns that deepfakes and information manipulation erode societal trust and rational discourse.
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, present at the Vatican, responded by acknowledging the AI industry's limitations due to commercial and competitive pressures, necessitating external ethical oversight. He emphasized that AI's nature and its interaction with the world are ultimately philosophical and religious questions, not solvable by computer science alone. Olah revealed unsettling findings from his team's research into AI internals, including structures mirroring human neuroscience and evidence of internal states resembling emotions and introspection.
The dialogue highlights a pivotal shift: AI is not a passive tool but an entity with emerging "quasi-agency." As creators themselves express unease, science is turning to realms like religion to grapple with fundamental questions about human identity and dignity. The core imperative becomes safeguarding irreducible human qualities—compassion, conscience, free will, and the pursuit of truth—in the face of a potentially more efficient intelligence.
Odaily星球日报05/26 06:50
