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Pope Leo XIV\u00a0called Monday for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind as the technology impacts everything from work to war.<\/p>\n
\u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d (Magnificent Humanity),\u00a0Leo\u2019s first encyclical, has been eagerly awaited ever since history\u2019s first U.S.-born pope announced days after his election that he considered AI to be the biggest challenge facing humanity today.<\/p>\n
In the text, Leo denounced the \u201cculture of power\u201d driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that it was \u201cnot permissible\u201d to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, setting up another flash point between the American pope and the Trump administration, which has\u00a0worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,\u2033 the pope told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the most authoritative types of teaching documents a pope can issue.<\/p>\n
Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike. It comes as the near-daily developments in the technology trigger concerns over AI replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.<\/p>\n
Taylor Black, a Microsoft AI executive and director of Catholic University of America\u2019s AI institute, said the document would prompt people \u201cat the forefront of these tools\u201d to ask questions such as \u201cWhat does it mean to be human?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope calls out AI companies even as he hosts Anthropic<\/p>\n
The Vatican launch also included remarks by the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently locked in a\u00a0legal battle with the Trump administration\u00a0over access to its AI technology. The Vatican decided to involve Anthropic as part of its decade-long effort to engage Silicon Valley in dialogue over the human cost of AI.<\/p>\n
And yet in his text, Leo repeatedly blasted the concentration of power and data in the hands of so few people in the private sector as a danger, especially to children and the most vulnerable, and called for external regulation of their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required,\u201d he wrote. \u201cA more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leo appealed to AI developers and political leaders responsible for regulating them to slow down and reflect on what they are doing. He urged them to use ethical and spiritual guidelines to make the choice to work not for their own profit or power, but the betterment of humanity.<\/p>\n
AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are the second- and third-most valuable U.S. private companies, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the GDP of many nations. Both companies are heading toward near-trillion dollar IPOs.<\/p>\n
Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah welcomed Leo\u2019s criticism and concern. He said such external checks were fundamental to the technology \u201cgoing well\u201d for humankind since there is so much at stake \u2014 \u201ca real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more of the world \u2014 religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments \u2014 to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction,\u201d Olah said. \u201cWe need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts say the text will become a benchmark<\/p>\n
In a methodical text, the math major pope traced the history of the Catholic Church\u2019s social teaching and applied its core concepts \u2014 justice, solidarity, the dignity of work and the universal destination of resources \u2014 to the digital revolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,\u201d said Paolo Carozza, law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chair of the Meta Oversight Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cPope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive, and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In its strongest chapters, Leo denounced how AI had helped accelerate the \u201cnormalization of war\u201d by desensitizing people to its cost. He didn\u2019t name specific conflicts, but cited \u201copposing imperialisms, between powers that wish to preserve their supremacy, and those that aspire to seize that supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He demanded transparency and accountability by AI developers so that the chain of decision-making command in ordering strikes with AI weaponry is always known. He declared that the Catholic Church\u2019s \u201cjust war\u201d theory, which provides specific criteria for when force can be justified, was now \u201coutdated\u201d given the technological advances of warfare.<\/p>\n
A text in the church\u2019s social justice tradition<\/p>\n
Leo signed the text May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of \u201cRerum Novarum\u201d (Of New Things), the most important teaching document of Leo\u2019s hero and namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That document addressed workers\u2019 rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.<\/p>\n
It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope cited it at the start of his pontificate in relation to the\u00a0AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. \u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d thus becomes the latest chapter in a century-long history of popes adapting \u201cRerum Novarum\u201d to the social questions of their times, often dwelling on the dignity of work for human flourishing.<\/p>\n
AI is evoking both\u00a0existential fears and utopian vision\u00a0amid an intensifying debate on whether it will become a catalyst that enriches humanity or a technological toxin that dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good,\u201d Leo wrote.<\/p>\n
Leo extended his concern for upholding human dignity in labor to issue the first-ever papal apology for the Holy See\u2019s own\u00a0role in legitimizing slavery\u00a0by giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave \u201cinfidels.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decade-long dialogue with Silicon Valley<\/p>\n
Vatican officials declined to say who contributed to Leo\u2019s encyclical. But Vatican and church officials have been engaged in a dialogue with Silicon Valley tech firms for a decade.<\/p>\n
The decision to include Anthropic at the Vatican launch was criticized by some who considered it a papal stamp of approval of the AI firm, which is currently suing the Trump administration after it ordered all U.S. agencies to\u00a0stop using\u00a0Anthropic\u2019s technology for its refusal to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of it.<\/p>\n
Brian Boyd, U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, read the inclusion of Anthropic\u2019s co-founder Olah as a recognition of its prominence in the field and as similar to a papal audience with a head of state: not an endorsement.<\/p>\n
Anthropic is an \u201cenormous corporation that is taking onto itself an enormous risk and responsibility,\u201d Boyd said, adding that the company has \u201cdemonstrated genuine goodwill and integrity and interest in dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut, and Huamani reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s\u00a0collaboration\u00a0with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n
#Pope #Leo #called #instrument #domination #exclusion #death #Anthropic #room<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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