Concerns about an artificial intelligence revolution have animated the initial days of the first American pope — including how he chose the name Leo XIV.
The pope told the College of Cardinals he selected the papal name Leo XIV “mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”
He said Saturday he sees a similar challenge emerging now from AI.
“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” the pope said according to an English-language translation of his remarks.
Leo XIII authored Rerum Novarum in 1891, which detailed Catholic social teaching, addressed concerns involving the Industrial Revolution and critiqued excesses of capitalism and socialism.
After Leo XIV’s election on Thursday, he has been quick to push for the Catholic Church to wrestle with questions involving new technology.
The pope initially explained his concern about cultural shifts involving “artificial intelligence, robotics, human relationships” and more during an informal dinner after his elevation, Chilean Cardinal Fernando Chomalí told Our Sunday Visitor.
During his first public sermon on Friday, the pope said missionary outreach must be made into “settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power or pleasure.”
Speaking to an audience of journalists on Monday, the pope again urged special attention be paid to AI developments.
“I am thinking in particular of artificial intelligence, with its immense potential, which nevertheless requires responsibility and discernment in order to ensure that it can be used for the good of all, so that it can benefit all of humanity,” the pope said, according to Our Sunday Visitor. “This responsibility concerns everyone in proportion to his or her age and role in society.”
Leo, a 69-year-old native of Chicago, appears to be a willing adopter of new technology, which he reportedly uses to communicate and play games such as “Wordle” with family.
Some onlookers tracking AI policy around the globe anticipate the pope will issue an encyclical, or some other guidance, about the relationship between humans and machines amid the advent of new AI tools.
Will O’Brien, founder of autonomous systems company Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering, said the Catholic Church is poised to move fast on questions surrounding the potential emergence of artificial general intelligence, or AI that surpasses human standards.
“Pope Leo XIV, a scholar of mathematics, is going to publish an encyclical on AI and the Catholic Church is going to leapfrog billions of investment into “AI safety” research nonprofits and become one of the authoritative voices on dealing with the results of AGI and the global shift it brings with it,” Mr. O’Brien predicted on X. “He will do it in a far less insane and more philosophically rich way than the utilitarian slop of ‘maybe we should just bomb the data centers.’”
