After a year in office, Pope Leo XIV is publishing his first encyclical this Monday (11:30 a.m.). The more than 100-page teaching letter entitled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Great Humanity) deals with the topic of artificial intelligence. The first encyclical of a new pope’s term of office is often seen as a kind of government declaration for his pontificate.
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Leo has been the head of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide since May last year. The Pope himself will be present at the presentation in the Vatican – something that has never happened before, according to the Catholic Church. The first pontiff from the USA has commented on the topic of AI several times in the past few months – both about opportunities and risks. However, the encyclical has so far been kept strictly under wraps by the Vatican.
Leo XIV refers to the social encyclicals of his namesake
In addition to high-ranking cardinals and theologians, the co-founder of the AI group Anthropic, Chris Olah, will also be present at the appointment – this is also a novelty when presenting an encyclical. The San Francisco-based company is in dispute with the US government under President Donald Trump because it does not want to make its AI models available in autonomous weapon systems and for monitoring the civilian population. Trump had recently criticized both Anthropic and the Pope several times.
The encyclical is dated May 15th. On this day it was exactly 135 years since Leo’s namesake, Leo XIII. published his encyclical “Rerum novarum” (“On New Things”). In doing so, the “worker pope” laid the foundations for Catholic social teaching as a result of the industrial revolution.
At a time when many are talking about an “AI revolution,” Leo XIV refers to it. The topic will also be whether AI-supported machines alone can decide about life and death in wars and conflicts.
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