Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's new encyclical 'on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,' has received widespread praise. This isn't surprising. A popular and learned world leader with a significant degree of moral authority is pointing out the dangers of a deeply unpopular technology created by deeply unpopular people. The laudatory coverage of the encyclical is justified, but it has obscured perhaps Leo's most important insight. Magnifica Humanitas ('Magnificent Humanity') is not only'or even mostly'about AI itself. And the pope is challenging much more than Big Tech. To be sure, Leo devotes considerable space to addressing the technology and its purveyors. In one of the document's most-quoted passages, he declares that AI 'must be disarmed' and prevented 'from dominating humanity.' Elsewhere, he argues for the need 'to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power' on...
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