The Catholic Church is not known for its forefront of policy – after all, it was still performed in Latin until the 1960s. But the newly chosen Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago, has an eye for the future when it comes to artificial intelligence. According to CNN, he pointed out in his first formal meeting with the church’s cardinals that the development of AI is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind.
He told the senior clergy: “In our own days, the church provided her social teaching with a response to another industrial revolution and the development of the field of artificial intelligence, which posed new challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.” He also said that he chose his own name, Leo, a signal that he intended to follow in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII, who said he worked hard to solve social problems “in the context of the first major industrial revolution.”
Pope Leo XIII served as the leader of the church from 1878 to 1903, perhaps best known for his encyclopedia entitled “novarum” or “The Rights and Obligations of Capital and Labor” issued in 1891. The letter is a landmark text to relieve “the pain and pain of such unjust oppression among the majority of the working class” and to express support for the union.
Leo XIV also took over from his former Pope Francis, who also identified AI as a potential risk to humans without a moral and human-centered approach. Francis releasedAntiqua et Nova“Annotation on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence”, he insists that any development in the field of AI must “serve human dignity rather than harm it.”
Pope Francis also made a public statement on AI at the 2024 G7 summit, describing AI as the beginning of the “cognitive industrial revolution” and warned that it posed a “greater risk of injustice between high and developing countries or rulers and oppressive social classes.” He also spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, warning that “human dignity and fraternity often pursue efficiency in pursuit of efficiency” and that in the process of new technologies, he called on people related to the development of artificial intelligence to ensure that “promote human dignity, respect for humanity, common people”, and common people’s careers”.
