Pope Leo XIV’s “Magnifica Humanitas” (on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence) came out in May.
I didn’t expect it to be a fast read, and I was right. In English, it runs to nearly 38,000 words, not counting footnotes.
I still haven’t read it, but have glanced through the thing. Now I’ve started reading, a bit at a time, equipped with a marker: and coffee.
Early on, I ran into these thoughts:
“…Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity. On the contrary, it has formed part of our history since the beginning as ‘a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man.’ [Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 69: AAS 101 (2009), 702.]…
“…’Never has humanity had such power over itself.’ [Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si ‘ (24 May 2015), 104: AAS 107 (2015), 888.] New technologies open up a horizon extending in directions that are imaginable but not yet fully predictable. This complicates the assessment of their potential impact and the long-term effects they may have on both the dignity of individuals and the common good….”
(“Magnifica Humanitas” — on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV (May 15, 2026)) [emphasis mine]
Telephone, Television: Technological Terrors??
“The Phantom Creeps” (1939:))
I’ve seen quite a few new technologies become widely used; and, for some, feared.
In my youth, telephone service was becoming as widely available as the Internet was a few years ago. Quite a few years, actually.
I don’t think anyone really said ‘kids these days don’t communicate, they just sit around for hours, talking on the telephone’. But misgivings about the newfangled tech were common enough for that to be a joke.
Television was another new technology threatening the very foundations of civilization. I’ll freely grant that much of the programming wasn’t what I’d watch. But I don’t think that everything would have been beer and skittles, if only we hadn’t been exposed to “I Love Lucy” and “Leave It to Beaver”.
The Internet — I’ve talked about that before, and I’ll admit a bias.
I like being able to access more information, faster, from archives I’d never have been able to reach in my youth.
Some folks misuse this technology, but I don’t miss the days when swindlers used the want ads instead of online markets. It’s different now, but not significantly different.
These days, AI — artificial intelligence — is among the top favorite new bogeymen.
Over the last few years, I’ve read that it’ll destroy creativity, take our jobs, puree our brains and generally make everything icky.
I’m not convinced.
On the other hand, my oldest daughter and I have exchanged words over some of the more egregious and inept efforts to use AI while cranking out alleged art. And that’s another topic or two. Or three, or — Actually, it’s a lot of topics.
Basically, I see AI as a new technology: one which each of us can use to help or hurt others; or decide not to use at all.
Tech Isn’t the Problem
The point is, each of us decides what we do — or don’t do — with technology.
It’s sort of like how St. Thomas Aquinas saw animals that can hurt us.
“In the words of Augustine (Super. Gen. contr. Manich. i): ‘If an unskilled person enters the workshop of an artificer he sees in it many appliances of which he does not understand the use, and which, if he is a foolish fellow, he considers unnecessary. Moreover, should he carelessly fall into the fire, or wound himself with a sharp-edged tool, he is under the impression that many of the things there are hurtful; whereas the craftsman, knowing their use, laughs at his folly. And thus some people presume to find fault with many things in this world, through not seeing the reasons for their existence. For though not required for the furnishing of our house, these things are necessary for the perfection of the universe.’ And, since man before he sinned would have used the things of this world conformably to the order designed, poisonous animals would not have injured him.”
(“The Summa Theologica,” First Part, Question 72. The work of the sixth day; St. Thomas Aquinas (unfinished at his death in 1274)) [emphasis mine]“…Now action is properly ascribed, not to the instrument, but to the principal agent, as building is ascribed to the builder, not to his tools. Hence it is evident that use is, properly speaking, an act of the will….”
(“The Summa Theologica,” First Part of the Second Part, Question 16. Use, which is an act of the will in regard to the means; Article 1; St. Thomas Aquinas (unfinished at his death in 1274)) [emphasis mine]
Seems to me that St. Aquinas gave each of us credit for having brains: and that using our brains, or not, was a choice each of us makes. Is that a drastic oversimplification? Yes. But I think it covers an important point.
One takeaway from these excerpts is that learning at least the basics of being “an artificer” before using tech is a good idea. So is learning self-awareness, and that’s a truckload of topics I don’t have time for this week.
Make that energy and focus. I’ve had the same seven days I get each week. Well, not the same days, but the same duration.
Time to wrap this up.
Using Technology Wisely: Or Not
I don’t think AI is a completely safe, foolproof technology.
No technology is so safe and foolproof that someone can’t misuse it. Even something as basic as fire, something we’ve used for well upwards of a million years, is a problem when someone goofs.1
I see AI as just another technology: a tool which each of us may use, misuse, or ignore. Considering AI’s potential, ignoring it seems — silly, at best.
Using AI wisely? That’s why I’ve been dabbling with the freebies available, and will keep reading “Magnifica Humanitas”: a few paragraphs at a time.
I’m in no hurry with the latter, since one of my daughters said she’d seen many informed commentaries on the encyclical letter back in May and June. One of these days I should learn more about her corner of social media. And that’s — you guessed it — another topic.
I’ve talked about AI, technology, and why I’m not in a blind panic before:
- “BART Drivers and the Importance of Being Human” (February 8, 2025)
- “ChatGPT, Attorney at Law — or — Trust, but Verify” (June 3, 2023)
- “ChatGPT and the End of Civilization as We Know It” (April 15, 2023)
1 Fire; among our first technologies, and still not ‘safe’:
- Wikipedia
- Beijing Television Cultural Center fire (“This article may be excessively based on old or outdated news reports. Please update this article with better sources….”)
- Control of fire by early humans
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While I remember getting really touchy to my mother about her using Copilot on my resume recently in her efforts to help me apply for a job in the company she currently works at, I think I could have expressed my caution to her a lot better. Certain vocal synthesis software are on my whitelist when it comes to artificial intelligence right now, but usually, I feel like worship of this new technology is prevalent, though I am also certain that worship of the new is an ancient thing. So yeah, gotta remember and appreciate that God is of both the old and the new, and never in half-baked ways. If He seems to be doing something wrong, then it’s just us projecting on Him yet again. At the same time, His efforts to redeem us reach even these times and places we think He would be too weird for…and I’m sure that previous generations have those who thought Him too weird for their times and places over and over.
Well-intentioned help from a parent – that reminded me of a time my father insisted that I add a particular point in a high school assignment. I knew it was a bad idea, since it didn’t just interrupt the flow of ideas: it broke the flow. And that’s at best tangentially relevant to what you were saying —-
Also — “could have expressed my caution … a lot better….” That is very relatable. I’ve assembled quite a collection of ‘I could have handled that better’ incidents. Happily, most of them are not parading across my mind’s front desk at the moment.
Vocal synthesis software — that’s something I haven’t played with since the old days of text-to-speech. Fascinating, and some obvious benefits. I’ve gotten to the point where my eyes are very nearly fixed-focus. On the ‘up’ side, my right eye’s ‘infinity focus’ is almost exactly at comfortable reading distance. 🙂
Worship of technology (or breakfast cereal, or anything that’s not God) — oh, yes, that’s very high on the list of bad ideas.
Finally — 😉 I like your “too weird” phrase describing God’s efforts. The Almighty has NEVER been ‘in step’ with contemporary cultures. And that’s a whole mess of other topics.