Women use mobile phones as they sit in a café. Photo: OSV News /Gleb Garanich, Reuters. Nowadays, students can conveniently ask ChatGPT or Claude for answers before wrestling with a homework question. Doctors increasingly consult algorithms to support clinical decisions. Meanwhile, younger generations seem to possess an almost instinctive ability to use digital technologies to build social networks, become influencers and even earn a living.
It is against this backdrop that Pope Leo XIV issued his much-anticipated first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work, learn, communicate and make decisions. Never before has humanity possessed such powerful technologies, nor faced such uncertainty as professions, institutions and social relationships are reshaped by them.
Profound
Magnifica Humanitas asks a profound question: what does it mean to be human in a digital age increasingly shaped by technology and artificial intelligence? The subtitle, ‘On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’, reveals its central concern. Throughout the document, Pope Leo reminds us that technological progress, while offering immense benefits, can never by itself answer the deeper questions of meaning, morality and human dignity.
One of the encyclical’s most important observations is that “technology is never neutral.” Every technology shapes not only what we do, but also how we think, relate to one another and understand ourselves. Just as social media has transformed our lifestyle, relationships and public discourse, the Holy Father is not simply asking what technology can do for us, but what it is doing to us.
This insight leads naturally to the concept of stewardship. If technology is not neutral, human beings cannot remain passive consumers. We are called to be responsible stewards, ensuring that its development and use serve the flourishing of persons, communities and creation rather than merely efficiency, profit or power. This builds on a central theme of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’, which emphasised humanity’s vocation as stewards rather than masters of creation. In the age of AI, that responsibility extends beyond caring for the natural environment to governing wisely the powerful digital technologies that increasingly shape human life.
Where is the life we have lost in living?”
Humanity today enjoys unprecedented connectivity, yet people continue to experience loneliness, anxiety and spiritual dryness. We are flooded with information, yet often struggle to find wisdom. Nearly a century ago, the poet T.S. Eliot posed a question in his poem ‘The Rock’ that now seems remarkably prophetic:
“Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
Eliot’s lament now takes on renewed urgency, for the challenge identified by Pope Leo is not a shortage of information but a deficit of wisdom.
Scripture consistently distinguishes wisdom from mere knowledge. The Book of Proverbs teaches that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10), while St James describes wisdom as “pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits” (Jas 3:17). Wisdom enables us to discern not merely what can be done, but what ought to be done.
Concern
The deeper concern in Magnifica Humanitas is the eclipse of wisdom despite a deluge of knowledge. When societies prize intelligence while neglecting moral discernment, they risk losing their ethical compass. As C.S. Lewis warned in The Abolition of Man, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”
Pope Leo’s concern is similar. Intelligence, whether human or artificial, is not enough. Without wisdom and morality, greater knowledge may simply amplify humanity’s capacity for exploitation and injustice.
Pope Leo acknowledges AI’s remarkable potential, but he also draws an essential distinction. AI can imitate aspects of human intelligence, but it possesses neither conscience, empathy nor spiritual insight. No machine can truly love, forgive, suffer, pray or sacrifice itself for another. It may simulate compassion or moral reasoning, but it does not experience them.
The encyclical challenges one of the most widespread assumptions of our age: that intelligence alone is sufficient to guide humanity forward. History has shown otherwise. Technologically advanced societies remain capable of exploitation, violence and moral blindness.
Human dignity remains sacred regardless of utility, independence or economic contribution”
The encyclical’s defence of human vulnerability is especially meaningful. Modern culture often glorifies intellect, productivity, power and control. Yet Magnifica Humanitas proposes a radically different vision. The frail elderly, the sick and those who care for them reveal facets of love, dependence and solidarity that cannot be measured by efficiency or productivity. Human dignity remains sacred regardless of utility, independence or economic contribution.
Pope Leo also offers a striking biblical contrast. The Tower of Babel represents humanity’s temptation to seek greatness through self-sufficiency, power and control. Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem, by contrast, exemplifies stewardship, cooperation and trust in God. One project sought human glory while the other sought the restoration of community. The question facing our technological age is whether our innovations will become monuments to human pride or instruments for serving the common good.
The title Magnifica Humanitas deliberately echoes Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55). In a world that often measures greatness by power, achievement and technological mastery, Mary reveals a different vision of human flourishing. Her greatness lies in humility, trust and openness to God.
Greatness
Whereas Babel symbolises humanity’s attempt to elevate itself through its own power, the Magnificat celebrates a greatness that comes from recognising our dependence on God and our responsibility towards others. Mary’s song praises a God who lifts up the lowly and cares for the vulnerable. By choosing this title, Pope Leo reminds us that the future of humanity will not be secured by ever more powerful intelligent machines, but by cultivating the virtues embodied by Mary: humility, wisdom, gratitude and love.
One particularly striking aspect of the encyclical is its concern for the erosion of interior life. We increasingly struggle with silence, contemplation and attentiveness. Constant noise and distraction don’t allow us to reflect, pray and discern. As knowledge becomes fragmented, people may know more than ever before while finding it harder to understand themselves or discern their meaning in life. Yet without the silence in which conscience is formed and God speaks to the heart, technological progress risks becoming detached from moral wisdom and spiritual meaning.
The ultimate question facing our generation is not whether machines will become more intelligent. It is whether human beings will become wiser. AI may transform economies, professions and societies, but it cannot provide meaning, cultivate virtue or teach us how to love. Those remain profoundly human tasks.
In Christ, we discover that wisdom is greater than intelligence, love surpasses efficiency, and relationships are treasured more than productivity”
Pope Leo’s answer is not to reject technology but to exercise wise stewardship over it. Humanity has always been entrusted with the care of creation; in the digital age, that vocation extends to the technologies we create. Artificial intelligence is neither a force to be worshipped nor a threat to be feared.
To remain human, ultimately, is to remain open to God. For Christians, the fullest expression of humanity is found in Jesus Christ, who reveals both the dignity of the human person and the meaning of authentic human flourishing. In Christ, we discover that wisdom is greater than intelligence, love surpasses efficiency, and relationships are treasured more than productivity (1 Cor 1:24).
In an age captivated by AI, Magnifica Humanitas reminds us that the greatest mystery is not artificial intelligence but the human person created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). Humanity’s future will not be determined solely by what machines can do, but by what human beings choose to become.