Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, saying the document offers a timely reminder that human beings can never be reduced in the service of technological efficiency.
Released on 25 May, the pope signed the encyclical on the 15 May anniversary of Rerum Novarum, in which Pope Leo XIII treated the challenges posed by the industrial revolution.
Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence is Pope Leo’s first encyclical and addresses the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence.
The document calls for technological innovation to remain at the service of human dignity and the common good.
Reflecting on the encyclical upon its release, Archbishop Fisher said Pope Leo had expressed a distinctly Christian understanding of the human person at a time of rapid technological change.
“Pope Leo reminds us that human beings are more than data sets, algorithms, tech consumers or projects to be ‘optimised’,” Archbishop Fisher said.
“While we have things in common with AI, we are different. We are bodily and spiritual beings, incarnational and sacramental.
Australian bishops welcome Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas’
“We are social and feeling beings, empathetic and made for friendship. We are imaginative and discerning beings. We are sinning and saved beings with a conscience. AI is none of these.”
The archbishop said the pope’s reflections engage with concerns many people have about artificial intelligence.
“The Holy Father helpfully reflects upon common anxieties about AI, such as the ways it can manipulate information, intrude ideological bias, violate privacy, threaten jobs, dehumanise warfare, and eviscerate education,” he said.
Yet Archbishop Fisher noted that Pope Leo does not reject technological progress.
“He is not ‘down’ on all technology: he can see the pluses in AI,” he said.
“Regulation is required, of course, but in the end what this ‘epochal change’ demands is deep reflection on what it is to be human, and on the virtues and principles required for AI to truly serve human flourishing and communion.”
The Vatican has increasingly engaged questions surrounding artificial intelligence in recent years, but the much-anticipated and well-received encyclical represents Pope Leo’s most substantial response to date, placing human dignity at the centre of the debate.
