Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

     Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas – On the Safeguarding of the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It is no secret that Pope Leo is concerned by the possible direction of AI and its impact on us, personally & communally. It was one of the reasons he took the name Leo, to build upon Pope Leo XIII’s legacy. Pope Leo places our response to AI in the greater context of the Catholic Social Doctrines that should guide any and all public discussions that impact the human person and the whole of humanity. Here are some notable excerpts on AI and specifically our call to remain truly human:

92. Pope Francis denounced the growing dominance of a technocratic paradigm… the tendency to let the logic of efficiency, control and     profit alone shape personal, social and economic decisions. This makes it clear that technology is not simply a tool. When it becomes the standard by which everything is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.

93. This paradigm has spread rapidly in recent years, fueled in part by the expansion of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology. In themselves, these innovations can greatly serve integral human development and the care of our common home. Yet precisely because of their power, they can also hasten the expansion of the technocratic paradigm and therefore require a new spiritual, ethical and political framework. More power does not necessarily imply something better…

94. The danger of humanity becoming a victim of its own achievements… If technological development advances without a corresponding ethical and social progress, the result may be an increase in means without a growth in humanity: “having more” without “being more.”

95. … In many cases within the digital context, control over platforms, infrastructure, data and computing power does not rest with States, but with major economic and technological actors. These entities effectively set the conditions for access, determine the rules of visibility and shape the very possibilities for participation…

99. It is not possible to provide a single, comprehensive definition of AI. What can be stated, however, is that we must avoid the misconception of equating this type of “intelligence” with that of human beings. These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence. In doing so, they often surpass human intelligence in speed and computational capacity, offering tangible benefits across many fields. Yet this power remains entirely tied to data processing. So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. Even when these tools are described as capable of “learning,” their way of doing so is different from that of a human person. It is not the experience of those who allow themselves to be shaped by life and grow over time through choices, mistakes, forgiveness and fidelity. Rather, it is a form of statistical adaptation based on data and feedback, which can be very effective, but does not imply inner growth.

100. … Yet [AI generated responses] can also encourage excessive reliance and the search for ready-made answers, and weaken personal creativity and judgment…The artificial imitation of positive human communication — words of advice, empathy, friendship and even love — can be engaging and at times genuinely helpful. However, for less discerning users, it can also be misleading, creating the illusion of a relationship with a real personal subject…Here, the danger is not so much that a person may believe they are communicating with another person, but rather that they may gradually lose the very desire to form genuine human connections.

Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.

Holy Family, rooted in authentic human relationship, Pray for us.

~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries