Leo’s Augustinian Encyclical

Since its release on May 25, the disparate critical responses of Pope Leo’s encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica humanitas, seem to at least be united in one assertion: The encyclical is generally unsatisfying. Matthew Walther of The Lamp writes in The New York Times that Magnifica humanitas is “uninspired” and “unfocused.” It fails to heed the lesson of the Tower of Babel and declare war against AI, opting instead for collaboration with a technological evil. Writing for First Things, Ned Desmond asserts that Pope Leo undermines the Church’s rich anthropological tradition by asserting on the one hand that AI can never think, feel, know, love, be loved, etc., but then on the other that there are benefits to human beings experiencing AI’s simulation of these things.