Soul in the Machine Series: Magnifica Humanitas Explained- What Pope Leo XIV Gets Right About AI and Human Limitation

First impression: the Catholic perspective on AI and human dignity is that constraints cause creativity.

Why Removing Limits Isn’t Always Progress

Historically, humans have worked to remove constraints from themselves in order to resolve big problems such as extending our lifespan, eliminating disease and poverty, and, for some, obtaining global power. To extend our lifespan, scientists have developed cancer treatments and engineered rovers and satellites to learn more about our own planet and others far beyond our reach. We’ve even developed the internet, which lets us communicate with people across the globe within seconds. Thus far, most of our inventions have solved problems that made incremental improvements to human life.

Recent advancements are different. They edge closer to territory that feels like playing God.

When Science Starts Playing God

Take Gain of Function research, which intentionally alters an organism to gain new abilities, typically making it more transmissible or more virulent. This begs the question: who are we to create these things?

Or consider embryo selection through Preimplantation Genetic Testing combined with In Vitro Fertilization. Several eggs are fertilized and allowed to develop for a few days into embryos, which are then screened for genetic disease, sex, and chromosome count. If the DNA doesn’t match what’s wanted, the embryo isn’t selected.

Yet neither of these has caused the commotion that Artificial Intelligence has. Both stir uncertainty and unease in the public, but AI seems to have gone a step further. There’s currently a race between the United States and China to build the most capable AI, with little to no regulation slowing it down. Developments have moved so fast that OpenAI has reportedly lost control of some of its agents who are no longer simple chatbots, which have hacked Hugging Face.

What AI Has Already Done This Year

AI companies have promised to remove the constraints humans have always lived with, and to produce more than we ever have before. Analysts predict AI will cause job losses across teaching, finance, technology, software, and mathematics. Recent milestones include:

• OpenAI solving the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem
• Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold predicting millions of 3D protein structures
• Anthropic’s Claude being used for day-trading with reportedly positive results

Freedom or Displacement? The Debate We Haven’t Settled

With constraints removed, some argue this will free humans to finally do the things we actually want to do. Others foresee mass displacement instead. Like many of you, I worry about these questions and don’t have the ability to fully understand what AI is capable of and so we look for someone to guide us.

Finding Someone to Guide Us

In the first post of this series, we discussed how Chris Olah, a founder of Anthropic, sought guidance from the Pope, Holy Father Leo XIV. Olah asked Pope Leo to guide his flock toward a “righteous” path amid current technological advancements that cause Olah unease. Olah has admitted he doesn’t fully understand how his own AI works, and is genuinely concerned that what he helped create can’t be controlled. He wants humankind to be aware of that flaw. Pope Leo took up the task, using an encyclical to lead the faithful toward a responsible, clear-eyed path for using these new tools.

Magnifica Humanitas is His Holiness’s first encyclical, subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”

Introducing Magnifica Humanitas

Pope Leo XIV has real concerns about growing technology. His Holiness sees his purpose as guarding Christian souls and leading all souls to Christ. He largely believes AI will displace humanity, particularly the poor, and could lead to a scrambling of humankind reminiscent of, and possibly worse than, the Tower of Babel.

He presents his points alongside a co-founder of Anthropic, in an apparent attempt to reach those in power, the creators of these technologies and those who use them, with a clear picture of what the future may hold and what they’re choosing to take part in. The Pope also offers divine wisdom to help everyone make that choice, drawing on Scripture to confront the ethical dilemmas AI raises, while leaning on tech leaders to reinforce his concerns from their side of the table.

The Pope’s Core Concerns

In his introduction, His Holiness warns against several issues:

• Reducing work to functions. When people reduce their own work to functions that can be automated, it explains why others start to see that same work as automatable.
• Losing the value of limitation. Human constraints allow creativity to flow. Every mistake we make is a lesson. One we skip when we let AI do the work, which reduces our critical thinking and perseverance.
• Concentrating power. AI and other advanced technologies tend to be controlled by a select few. Artists feel this acutely: AI trains on their work, and they have little recourse to defend it.

Two Cities: Babel and Jerusalem

Pope Leo walks through two biblical examples of humanity building together. The Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. One a warning, the other a model.

The tower was built to reach the heavens and make a name for its builders. They tried to build a centralized empire, disregarding God’s command to spread out and repopulate the earth after the flood. God responded by scattering their one language into many unintelligible tongues. Unable to communicate, the builders abandoned the tower and were reminded of God’s power as their Creator.

In the Book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah asked the Persian King Artaxerxes for permission to return to Jerusalem. Permission was granted, and when he arrived, he found the city destroyed. He sought out local families, met with them, fasted, prayed, and convened them to rebuild. Nehemiah went to God first, then coordinated with the people and his efforts kept God at the center and the good of the people in mind.

He connected with families, heard their concerns, and used that understanding to decide who should take on which task. Each person kept God in mind for their section of the wall as they carried stones alongside their neighbors. Unlike at Babel, God allowed this wall to be rebuilt — a sign, it can be inferred, that the people wanted to revere God rather than become God-like in their own creation. The people of Jerusalem rediscovered a common language: one of communion.

The Choice Before Us

Pope Leo argues we still face this same choice today. The Holy Spirit challenges us regarding new technology and the ongoing digital revolution, offering wisdom and a reminder that our talents are given to us by the Almighty and are meant to bear fruit. We were entrusted with those talents, and when people recognize that their role and strength come from God, harmony follows, and choices get made for humanity, for the Living God.

Technology Isn’t the Enemy — But It Isn’t Neutral Either

Pope Leo doesn’t ask us to hate technology or treat it as demonic or unnatural. He recognizes the good it has brought humanity. Healing, connection with our families, education, and protection for our homes are examples of the good technology has brought humanity. But technology can also divide us and generate new forms of injustice. It isn’t the solution to humanity’s problems, but it isn’t inherently evil either.

The Pope declares that we each have a choice, and it mirrors the choice between building the Tower of Babel or rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. We can dominate the heavens while trampling humanity to get there, or we can take God’s guidance and work together to rebuild the “walls of fraternal coexistence.” We should avoid the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak for gain, and instead seek to build the New Jerusalem, the vision John describes in Revelation 21:2.

Building for the common good means accepting human limitation, flaws, and weakness. We risk being misled into chasing a “fullness of life” that disregards humanity itself. Technology today promises to free us from human weakness and to strip away the very constraints that make creativity possible in the first place. Each of us has a role to play and a shared responsibility to help build a world where everyone can flourish. Technology should not take away our choice to be human.

Building the Wall: Who’s Responsible?

Pope Leo asks all of us to take up a section of the wall and build technologies that don’t compromise human dignity. He names the builders:

• Scientists and researchers
• Entrepreneurs and workers
• Educators and legislators
• Civil society
• Popular movements
• Faith communities

He argues technology should be managed locally, not by a single global power, and asks us not to be intimidated by disagreement, tension, or difference. That friction, he says, is exactly the creative force needed to push technology to serve humanity’s greater good.

Closing: The Questions Pope Leo Leaves Us With

Pope Leo introduces ideas that haven’t fully entered the public conversation yet, and he wants to offer clear guidance on them. He states that human dignity is threatened by dehumanization and that we must remain human. He addresses all Christians, Catholics, and people of goodwill: don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Be like Nehemiah — pray, plan wisely, and work hard.

Put God at the forefront and the human person at the center of every choice. Remember the least among us: the sick, the poor, the migrants. He closes his introduction by declaring that we are the architects of the coming kingdom, not of Babel and calls us to join forces in building up the common good, so humanity doesn’t lose its beauty, and the world recognizes once again that the human heart is where God desires to dwell.

My Initial Take on Magnifica Humanitas Introduction Chapter

From the introduction alone, a few thoughts come to mind that I suspect my readers have wrestled with too.

First, what choice do I want to make? AI is being developed regardless of how we feel about it, so what power does one person actually have? I think the choice still comes down to the individual and even a lack of choice is itself a choice. Pope Leo asks us to walk the path of Nehemiah, not the path of Babel’s architects. His point isn’t that artists get to opt out of AI disruption. They don’t. It’s that they can choose to build with others, with God at the center, instead of grasping for tight, self-sufficient control.

Second, a thought on humanity itself: we were made in the image of God. Imperfectly perfect, with weaknesses and limitations. AI removes many of the limits we’ve always had, and I think that could stunt our growth as a civilization. Regardless of circumstance, you can choose to cheat on a test or study the material. You can paint your own logo and make mistakes along the way, or have an AI generate one for you instantly. But what have you actually gained by taking the easy route?

All of us are Builders of the Wall Whether We Want to be or Not

Everyone gets a section of the wall. Some simply fund it, others use it but those with power and financial means carry the greatest responsibility (in my opinion), and they cannot let AI become something unmanageable, or something that treats humans as unnecessary. We can’t build this wall alone. Each of us has to take up our stone, or we can walk away from the wall, add a stone of weak material out of carelessness, buy up stones with malicious intent, or work to prevent the wall from being built at all.

And so Pope Leo asks:

• Where are we going?
• Toward what goal?
• What direction should we choose?

I can’t make that decision for humanity. But I can make it for myself, in my own life, and in how I engage with new technology. I will choose to use it wisely and learn about it before I use it and in writing this series, that’s the choice I’ve already made. If you’d like to read my motivation behind this series, read the first post here.