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Notes on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI

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Notes on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI 25th May 2026 Dropped this morning by the Vatican: Magnifica Humanitas of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. This is a very interesting document. It’s some of the clearest writing I’ve seen on the ethics of integrating AI into modern society. Pope Leo XIV chose the name Leo in honor of Pope Leo...
The encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas* presents a thoughtful critique of AI's societal integration, grounding its arguments in Catholic social teaching while engaging with contemporary technological challenges. The Pope's framing of AI as a "cultivated" rather than "built" system acknowledges the opacity of modern AI, a rare admission from a high-profile institution. This aligns with broader concerns about AI's interpretability and the risks of delegating critical decisions to black-box systems. T...