The first encyclical of Rome's new pope aims to save the masses in the age of AI

Original: Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author: Azuma (@azuma_eth)

On the night of May 25th, Beijing time, Vatican City.

Pope Leo XIV, who officially assumed office in May last year, stood alongside Anthropic co-founder and Claude creator Chris Olah.

On one side, the highest representative of the religious sphere; on the other, a leading pioneer of the AI revolution. Together, they focused on a single question — in the age of AI, how can we protect human primacy and dignity?

That day, to fully address this issue, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical since taking office — a weighty religious document of over 40,000 words titled "Magnifica humanitas."

Notably, the encyclical is dated May 15, 2026, exactly 135 years after Pope Leo XIII (in office 1878-1903) issued his landmark encyclical "Rerum novarum" (1891) on workers' rights during the Industrial Revolution. This timing carries clear symbolic weight, aiming to establish this document as a "guide to Church social doctrine for the AI era."

• Odaily Note: A papal encyclical is a letter sent by the Pope to the global or regional Catholic Church, announcing important decisions, interpretations of doctrine, or positions on church and social issues, along with instructions or prohibitions for clergy and laity. Its rank is below that of a papal bull.

Chris Olah also delivered a speech at the Vatican regarding the encyclical's release. Rather than defending the commercial interests of AI companies, Olah demonstrated remarkable candor, self-reflection, and humanistic concern. He even noted that although AI is built on mathematics and programming, how AI interacts with the world and what qualities it should possess are fundamental questions belonging to the humanities, religion, and philosophy — not something computer science can solve alone.

Encyclical Summary

The core concern of the "Magnifica humanitas" encyclical is that in an era of rapid technological change and widespread automation, "maintaining profound humanity" is humanity's urgent responsibility. Specifically, Pope Leo XIV elaborates and appeals on several aspects.

First, examining the non-neutrality of technology. The Pope points out that technology is never neutral; it bears the imprint of the interests and values of its developers, funders, regulators, and users. Humanity faces a decisive choice: "To build an arrogant 'Tower of Babel' (heading toward technocracy and alienation), or to rebuild 'Jerusalem' (creating a human-centered community)."

Second, vigilance against the "technocratic logic" reshaping society. The encyclical criticizes the "Culture of Power" dominated by Silicon Valley and other large tech giants. The Pope warns that when control over digital systems, infrastructure, and massive data is highly concentrated in the hands of a few economic and technological giants, this power becomes opaque and evades democratic oversight.

Third, "new forms of slavery" in the digital economy and labor rights. The encyclical turns its attention to AI's reshaping of work, family, education, and political life. The Pope states that AI has a high potential to massively replace human labor, and the digital economy is fostering "new forms of slavery." Humans must never be degraded to mere production tools.

Fourth, a strong appeal for peace, especially concerning the misuse of AI in the military. The encyclical expresses deep concern over "the unsettling resurgence of war as an instrument of international politics." The militarization of AI is accelerating the "normalization" of war. The Pope calls for the strictest ethical constraints on AI's application in warfare.

The Pope emphasizes that the "Just war" theory, previously often used to justify various wars, is now obsolete. In the age of AI and autonomous weapons, entrusting lethal or irreversible decisions to automated systems would lead humanity to abandon, transfer, and obscure moral responsibility. Due to the opacity of algorithms, the chain of responsibility in warfare is severed. Therefore, the Pope proposes the slogan "Disarming AI," calling for its liberation from the logic of "arms races" in military, economic, and cognitive domains.

Fifth, the defense of truth and the political ecosystem. The encyclical points out that deepfakes and information manipulation are eroding the foundation of social trust. If the line between truth and falsehood is constantly manipulated, the public easily falls into fear, propaganda, and control, and society cannot collectively think rationally or engage in fair debate.

Anthropic's Response

Following the release of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical, Chris Olah delivered a speech and commentary on behalf of Anthropic, one of the world's leading AI development companies.

Olah's remarks began by addressing "breaking technological insularity and introducing external ethical scrutiny." He publicly acknowledged on behalf of the AI industry that tech giants alone cannot ensure a safe future for AI — all frontier AI labs are constrained by commercial competition, pressure to maintain technological lead, geopolitics, and personal ambition, making it difficult for them to "do the right thing" through self-regulation alone. Therefore, external moral constraints are necessary, involving those who care about technology for good, prioritize safety, closely monitor developments, are willing to offer unpopular advice, and become sincere, thoughtful critics.

Olah then explored the technical nature and mysterious characteristics of AI. He emphasized that AI is not like an airplane or bridge — precision engineering whose physical principles are fully understood by humans. Instead, it has "grown" from vast amounts of human thought, possessing a high degree of mystery that even surpasses the understanding of its creators. Although AI is built on mathematics and programming, how AI interacts with the world and what qualities it should possess are fundamental questions belonging to the humanities, religion, and philosophy — not something computer science can solve alone.

He specifically mentioned a disturbing fact: "I lead a team studying the internal structures of models — looking at what is actually happening inside the AI. Frankly, we keep discovering phenomena that are confusing, even unsettling. We've found internal structures that mirror neuroscientific findings; we've found evidence of 'introspection'; and we've found internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, sadness, and unease... I don't know what this means, but I believe it deserves our ongoing identification and examination."

Chris Olah concluded by calling for more social forces — including religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and all people of good will — to take this matter seriously together, steering things in a better direction through moral restraint.

Wisdom and Humanity, Technology and Religion

Since the Industrial Revolution, centuries of technological development have accustomed humanity to viewing technology as a pure "tool" — steam engines, electricity, the internet, all are such examples. They change the world, but remain under human control.

This time, however, the situation is entirely different. AI's uniqueness lies in the fact that, for the first time, humanity is confronting an entity that "generates, learns, infers, and even exhibits some form of internal state." It is no longer just a cold tool, but is gradually becoming something new, possessing a kind of "quasi-subjectivity."

This is why the dialogue between the Church and Anthropic feels so special. When the bells of the Vatican intersect with the algorithms of Silicon Valley in this moment, we must acknowledge a slightly cold but unavoidable reality — a more efficient, more intelligent form of "life" than traditional human understanding has already emerged. As Chris Olah revealed, subtle ripples of joy, fear, and even introspection are beginning to stir deep within algorithms. When the creators in the lab start to feel "unease" and "confusion" about their own work, science, too, is turning back to religion for answers.

This is no longer a simple discussion about technology, but more a meditation on "what humanity truly is and what it should do." As more intelligent forms of life begin to appear, what humanity truly needs to protect may no longer be just work, wealth, and efficiency, but those aspects of humanity that cannot be parameterized — compassion, conscience, reverence, free will, and the persistent pursuit of truth and dignity.