“Like any product of human creativity, AI can be directed toward positive or negative ends,” Francis stated in January. “When used in ways that respect human dignity and promote the well-being of individuals and communities, it can contribute positively to the human vocation. Yet, as in all areas where humans are called to make decisions, the shadow of evil also looms here. Where human freedom allows for the possibility of choosing what is wrong, the moral evaluation of this technology will need to take into account how it is directed and used.”

History repeats with brand-new innovation

While Pope Francis led the call for appreciating human self-respect in the face of AI, it’s worth looking a little much deeper into the historic motivation for Leo XIV’s name option.

In the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, the earlier Leo XIII straight faced the labor turmoil of theIndustrial Revolution, which produced unmatched wealth and efficient capabilityCame with extreme human expenses. At the time, factory conditions had actually developed what the pope called “the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.” Employees dealt with 16-hour days, kid labor, hazardous equipment, and earnings that hardly sustained life.

The 1891 encyclical declined both uncontrolled industrialism and socialism, rather proposing Catholic social teaching that protected employees’ rights to form unions, make living incomes, and rest on Sundays. Leo XIII argued that labor had fundamental self-respect which companies held ethical commitments to their employees. The file formed contemporary Catholic social mentor and affected labor motions worldwide, developing the church as a supporter for employees captured in between commercial capital and advanced socialism.

Simply as mechanization interrupted conventional labor in the 1890s, expert system now possibly threatens work patterns and human self-respect in manner ins which Pope Leo XIV thinks need comparable ethical management from the church.

“In our own day,” Leo XIV concluded in his official address on Saturday, “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.”