Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence” — which frames the AI Revolution as a pivotal moment for humanity — may be turn out to be the most consequential document of what is already one of our century’s most consequential papacies.
In the document, the Pope — who has not shied away from taking on Donald Trump — warns of the danger that AI will be a tool of “domination, exclusion, and death,” and warns of threats of mass unemployment, biased algorithms, and the concentration of power by techbro oligarchs.
Christopher Hale is the author of the “Letter from Leo” on Substack and has been chronicling the American pope since his election last year.
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Some highlights of our conversation:
I asked Hale: What is distinctive about this Pope compared to his predecessors?
Why the Pope wanted to move fast on AI.
Humanity is defined by its flaws.
Machines can’t replace the human person.
Trump v. the American Pope
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