It may seem strange that Pope Leo XIV apologized for the church’s role in slavery within his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), in which he said artificial intelligence is dangerous and must be disarmed. “It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” he wrote in the letter to the church that was made public Monday. “For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
But Leo addressing slavery and this emergent technology in the same document is not strange at all. The encyclical in its entirety addresses the question of humanity: who can be regarded as human, and the problem with AI using human labor, experiences and cultures to empower machines to replace humans. It was important to the pope to acknowledge the failure of the church to see the humanity of enslaved persons. The church was perfectly fine with saving souls while allowing institutions and governments to enslave other people, especially Africans. It was even fine with the enslavement of those who converted.
Leo addressing slavery and this emergent technology in the same document is not strange at all.
In the present day, Leo argues that AI is helping to create a new form of colonialism that appropriates data and transforms personal lives into exploitable information. Moreover, he says in the encyclical that “new forms of slavery are fueled by economic chains and digital infrastructures.” Leo calling AI one of the “new forms of enslavement” would have rung hollow, if not hypocritical, had he not acknowledged the church’s complicity in slavery.
He argues that “if technology becomes the ultimate criterion, the human person risks being reduced to data, a cog in a machine or a commodity. If, however, technology is integrated with a wise perspective, it can become an instrument of growth, justice and fraternity.”
It is a sign of the threat Leo believes AI poses to humanity that he personally announced his own encyclical. Generally, cardinals and other church officials announce and hold a news conference announcing key points of the letter to the public. But on this occasion, the pope convened a panel of theologians and the co-founder of Anthropic, Christopher Olah, who was seated next to Leo. Together, the panel introduced the encyclical, with final comments by Leo, during which they made the particularly strong point that AI must be disarmed.
The pope said the core of the document is a question: What happens to human beings considering the tasks and technologies AI is consuming and replacing?
In addition, the panel was accompanied by a powerful and compelling video presentation covering the advances of technology and the popes from Pope Leo XIII era and the encyclical Rerum Novarum to AI and Pope Leo. The point was to convey the long line of history of the church confronting technological advances and engaging them through the lens of Catholic social teaching and the value of the human person.
Part of the important work of the Vatican is now to promote the encyclical through new media. Images and video have arisen from the new Dicastery for Promoting Human Development to help people understand what is at stake. The first image is of the Tower of Babel compared with Jerusalem. The image lays out what is at stake: Babel — humanity without God, uniformity and dehumanization — or Jerusalem — God at the center, diversity, brotherhood and collaboration. The encyclical video is a professional, compelling production showcasing the beauty of personhood and human beings.
Leo calling for the disarming of AI has a figurative meaning but also a more literal one. AI is not only transforming our way of life, but also how it can normalize war through the use of AI technology. As Leo put it, “The Holy See has recently observed that the growing ease with which autonomous weapons systems can be deployed makes war more ‘feasible’ and less subject to human control.” The Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic, the company Olah co-founded, and contracted with other companies after Anthropic insisted that certain parameters be in place to guide the Department of Defense’s use of its AI technology in warfare.
While there are many takeaways from the encyclical that should be explored over the next months and years as AI becomes increasingly a part of our everyday lives, both in useful and detrimental ways, the message of Leo’s first encyclical is clear: “Only together — those who design the systems and those who suffer their effects, the richest and the poorest countries, institutions and individuals, centers of power and peripheries — will we be able to build a future not for a privileged few, but for the entire human family.”
The Catholic Church “intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, the enslavement of “infidels.” The church didn’t stand up and defend humanity when past governments and institutions reduced human beings to chattel. His apology for slavery, then, was not just an acknowledgment of the past but a determination not to repeat some of those mistakes when dealing with AI and its effects on humanity.
Anthea Butler is a professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.