Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on Monday, warning that the global artificial intelligence race risks becoming a modern Tower of Babel — a dazzling achievement that concentrates power, weakens truth, and reduces people to data points. The 43,000-word document, signed at St. Peter's on May 15, 2026, marks the Vatican's most aggressive foray into positioning itself as a moral authority in tech debates.
The encyclical was intentionally released 135 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, the 1891 landmark that shaped modern Catholic social teaching during the Industrial Revolution. This parallel signals that the current pope sees AI as a similarly transformative force requiring moral guidance.
The pope's central argument is that AI is not neutral — it carries the values of the institutions that design, finance, train, and deploy it. He warns that these systems increasingly decide who gets jobs, credit, public services, and reputational standing, often embedding biases from their creators.
Among the specific warnings, Leo cautions that AI can erode human judgment by offering instant answers that weaken creativity and critical thinking. The document also raises concerns about power concentration, where a handful of corporations and governments control the technology's trajectory.
The encyclical does not call for a ban on AI but urges a framework that prioritizes human dignity over efficiency or profit. It remains to be seen whether the Vatican's moral authority can translate into tangible influence over tech policy, especially in secular or non-Christian nations.