Pope Leo writes:

Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new “rare earths” of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide investment strategies, anticipate crises and, above all, determine who and what is deemed to matter. Those who control the health data of entire peoples — often collected under the pretext of aid, research or innovation — possess a structural leverage over the future, for they can shape needs and markets. They can also decide, before others, to whom medicines, investments and protections will be allocated. Here lies one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time: to ensure that shared knowledge becomes a true common good rather than an instrument of dominance. This requires restoring to individuals not only the data that describes them, but also the ability to decide how it is used, by whom and for whose benefit. Otherwise, the digital age will not be post-colonial, but colonial in another form. [Continue reading…]

The Guardian reports:

Pope Leo has denounced the “culture of power” driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that the technology must be subject to the “most rigorous” ethical constraints as it infiltrates everything from work to war.

In his encyclical – the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy – he also apologised for the Catholic church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory”, and spoke of the “new forms of slavery” due to the digital economy.

In a break from tradition, Leo, who soon after being elected in May last year said he considered AI to be the biggest threat to humanity today, presented the document himself on Monday during an event at the Vatican. Among those in attendance was Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a US-based AI firm thatis embroiled in a lawsuit with Donald Trump’s administration over the ethics of AI.

Encyclicals are one of the highest forms of teaching from a pope to the Catholic church’s 1.4 billion members, and typically outline his priorities while highlighting the major issues in society.

In the document, called Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Leo, who was born in Chicago and is the first US-born pope, referred to “a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics” and said AI was helping to facilitate the “normalisation of war”.

“For this reason, the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,” he wrote.

Leo urged the “disarming” of AI, while stating that some autonomous weapons systems are “practically beyond any human reach” to control.

“Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” he wrote. “To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” adding that the technology should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all and opened to discussion and debate.

In a passage that appeared to be targeted at Silicon Valley, the pope warned that power over digital systems, infrastructure and data “does not rest with states but with major economic and technological actors”, and that when such power was concentrated “in the hands of the few” it tended to “become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities”. [Continue reading…]

Religion News Service reports:

When news broke last week that Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical focused on artificial intelligence would be releasing on Monday (May 25), a wave of debate swept through Catholic and tech circles alike.

According to Brian Green, it wasn’t the encyclical itself, which has been rumored for months, that sparked a “scattering of unease,” but details about how it will be unveiled: at an event, planned to feature not only the pontiff, but also Chris Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, a leading American AI company.

But as critics questioned whether Olah’s presence at the event was appropriate, Green, who works at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California’s Bay Area, was largely unmoved.

“It’s a little surprising, but I don’t think it’s unexpected,” he told Religion News Service this week. “The Vatican has been cultivating relationships with the tech community for about 10 years.”

Green would know. As a leading tech ethics expert operating at a Catholic university in Silicon Valley, he has spent years urging tech companies to embrace more ethical processes and standards. And recently, that has included Anthropic: Green is one of several religious leaders, theologians and ethicists who have participated in a series of sometimes dayslong conversations with the company since January, including sessions with the programmers crafting the AI models themselves.

“What we’re seeing right now is unique, it’s different, and it’s a seriousness that I think is something to be happy about,” he said.

It’s part of a peculiar pivot to ethics — including faith-informed ethics — taking place in the tech world amid rising anxiety over the AI boom and its potential to radically disrupt the daily lives of billions. The power and wealth of leading AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI has grown to geopolitical proportions, with governments the world over rushing to position themselves as global AI powers. Meanwhile, high-profile debates over AI regulation are taking place among lawmakers who see a rare bi-partisan unease over AI, from the development of data centers to widespread job loss to the use of the technologies in war.

Yet insiders such as Green, whose university is also slated to have a representative speak at the encyclical unveiling Monday, say Anthropic’s presence at the event points to another major dynamic at play: an emerging relationship between the Vatican and tech companies that has spanned two papacies, as church leaders dialogue with major companies — and particularly Anthropic — about ways to produce more ethical forms of AI. [Continue reading…]