The new papal encyclical of Leo XIV: the Church facing the challenges of Artificial Intelligence | Robert Prevost

MIRA: Mériam Korichi: “Philosophy clarifies thought”

As a counterpart, the pontiff presents the story of Nehemiah, a Jew in the service of the Persian king Artaxerxes, who arrives at a ruined Jerusalem and summons priests, artisans, men, women and young people to rebuild the city. Thus, in the tenth paragraph of his encyclical, the Pope states: “Let us avoid, therefore, the Babel syndrome: the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, the uniformity that flattens differences, the pretension of a single language – even digital – capable of translating everything, even the mystery of the person, into data and performance. This is the risk of dehumanization… Let us choose, instead, the path of Nehemiah, which highlights the value of shared work for “make the city of God a safe place… transforming diversity into a resource and making listening and dialogue the common ground on which to grow justice and fraternity.”

This encyclical follows the line begun 135 years ago by Leo “The Pope collects the entire tradition of the encyclicals that have dealt with the social issue,” he says, “and reminds us that the social doctrine of the Church has always sought to dialogue with contemporary realities… and the novelty is artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, so it tries to illuminate these realities from the vision of the Church and the Gospel.”

“The Pope collects the entire tradition of the encyclicals that have dealt with the social issue, and reminds us that the social doctrine of the Church has always sought to dialogue with contemporary realities”

Rafael Fernández Hart | Rector U. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya

“Through these images [Babel y el camino de Nehemías]the Pope shows us – Father Fernández continues – that artificial intelligence is not a neutral reality and in that sense we must ask ourselves sharply who controls it, who owns the data, who designs the algorithms, who benefits economically, etc. So, by contrasting these images, he asks us if we want another Babel, control, dominion; or if we rather want to build a society and keep human dignity safe.”

For Véronique Lecaros, head of the Department of Theology at the Catholic University and co-author of the book “Leo XIV, portrait d’un pape péruvien”, with this encyclical, the Pope enters contemporary debates on the uses of AI. She highlights the presence of Christopher Olah, one of the founders of Anthropic, at the presentation of the encyclical, last May 25. “This company refused, for ethical reasons,” he comments, “to have its technology used for war and to monitor citizens. This shows that the Pope is not against technology, but against its misuse.”

Hence the criticism that the pontiff makes of the currents known as transhumanism and posthumanism that share the dream of overcoming the limits of the human condition, through hybridization with machines. “Leon

In the opinion of Ricardo Falla Carrillo, professor of the Department of Philosophy and Theology of the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, every encyclical has a double dimension: “They are reflective and at the same time magisterial texts, made to be evaluated over a very long time,” he says. In a first reading, he highlights the Pope’s vision to project the Second Vatican Council into the new millennium, “that’s where the issue of artificial intelligence comes in,” he specifies.

“Human beings have qualities that machines cannot have. Emotions, affections, feelings are something that a machine cannot develop.”

Véronique Lecaros | Head of the Theology Department of the PUCP

In this regard, it highlights previous letters such as “Antiqua et nova”, in which the Church already reflected on AI. “For a few decades now,” explains Falla Carrillo, “several researchers have been talking about technological singularity, that moment in which general artificial intelligence will fully surpass human intelligence. That will be a turning point. For me, what Leo XIV is doing is thinking about the Church in this scenario and from there creating a critical teaching profession. As he is a mathematician, he has a scientific vision and is aware of where humanity is going.”

But the papal message does not fall into despair, but rather asks to recover our “magnificent humanity” in the face of AI, with values ​​such as solidarity, subsidiarity, responsibility, dialogue and social justice to build “the civilization of love.” “Of course, not everyone has the same power to influence reality – reads paragraph 212 of the encyclical -: there are those who govern, those who decide on investments, those who direct institutions, those who investigate, those who educate, those who inform, those who produce; and there are those who seem to have only their own daily life. However, no one is exempt from responsibility. Each one has his own sphere of action, and there – not elsewhere – he is called to choose whether to feed the logic of force – even if only with indifference, cynicism, lies and hatred–, or if it promotes the logic of peace–with truth, sobriety, closeness and care–.” That is, either we continue in the tower of Babel or we choose the reconstruction of the world.