Citing Gandalf, Pope Leo says we must "disarm" AI

With the co-founder of Anthropic at his side today in Rome, Pope Leo XIV released a major new encyclical —his first—called “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”). It calls for AI to be “disarmed” in service of the common good. “The word is strong,” Leo admits, but he chose the language of “disarmament” deliberately “because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.” AI today must be “freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death.” The 40,000-word encyclical contains uncompromising critiques of AI-powered autonomous weapons, neo-colonial attitudes towards data collection, and the hoarding of “new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure, and data.” But the letter goes far beyond critique, updating Catholic social teaching in a way that calls on everyone to “build”—a favorite term of the Silicon Valley elite. (See venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s well-known 2020 essay, “ It’s Time to Build .”) In Leo’s vision, though, this “building” extends beyond code or startups or factories or housing. He calls for nothing less than the creation of a “civilization of love” in which everyone works for the common good within their own sphere of life and in which technology does not dominate, exclude, or bypass humanity, but instead serves and augments it. …