One of my favorite passages in Sacred Scripture comes from Psalm 8: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet.”
This evidence of Divine Revelation affirms the supreme dignity of the human person. We are made “in the image and likeness of God.” God looks on us and says we are “very good.” God has a particular love for the human person. The human person cannot be stripped of this dignity. Our infinite and invaluable worth, in the eyes of God, cannot be reduced to anything less than this magnificent reality.
This reality of the supreme dignity of the human person is at the core of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence). It is the underlying theme which colors the entirety of what Pope Leo has to offer in his reflections on the opportunities and threats that artificial intelligence poses for us.
As Pope Francis noted during his pontificate: “We are not living in an era of change, but a change of era.” The digital revolution that we are facing, particularly with the development of artificial intelligence, is a paradigm shift for culture and civilization, in parallel ways that the industrial revolution fundamentally changed the trajectory of history.
In his encyclical, Pope Leo calls artificial intelligence “a valuable tool that requires vigilance.” The vigilance Pope Leo is calling for is precisely the protection of human dignity and all that this implies.
Pope Leo is exploring the implications of artificial intelligence on human intelligence, human will power, human moral responsibility, human relationships, human community, human work, as well as other key themes, such as social justice, care for the environment, war, politics, economic structures, and governmental regulation.
At this point in human history, we all have a keen sense of the dehumanizing elements of technology, particularly with the universal presence of social media. It is easy to view the human person as an object of use or abuse. Our lives are seemingly hidden behind screens and makes it easy to undercut and undermine human dignity.
With the exponential growth of AI, Pope Leo is warning against not only individual actions here and there that can undermine human dignity but with a pervasive and broad reaching anti-human vision. By this, Pope Leo is warning against a world where we exalt as supreme the development of technology, profit, violence, power, and data over and above the human person. This anti-human vision sees the person as a means to achieving some other perceived greater end. In such a world, the human person becomes an object of use and disposable once its use has been exhausted and capitalized upon.
This is a harrowing vision of the human person and society.
But Magnifica Humanitas is an encyclical of hope during “a change of era.” It reminds each one of us that placing a priority on the human person, as envisioned by God from the beginning of all creation, is still possible, regardless of the specific circumstances of our place in history. The truth of the human person, as made in the image and likeness of God, is a truth that is “ever ancient, ever new” and cannot be displaced. And it certainly cannot be displaced because we are entering into a profoundly disruptive digital revolution.
Ultimately, Pope Leo is calling on the Church to take personal and social responsibility for our situation and to articulate and protect a robust vision of the human person. No person is too small to take action and have an impact and, together, our witness to the love of God for the human person can have an even greater affect.
The encyclical also has numerous, specific actionable items that will guide our public policy work at the Nebraska Catholic Conference and we will certainly discuss those implications at a later date. But for now, first things first: articulating and safeguarding the grandeur of humanity.
If you haven’t yet read the encyclical, do so. Take it to prayer. Take it to heart. And proclaim its beauty in the public square among family, friends, fellow parishioners, and fellow Nebraskans.
