교황의 AI 회칙이 진짜로 말하고자 하는 것

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical on Monday, dubbed Magnifica Humanitas, on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.” And while AI is the hook, the problems Leo focuses on are older and more pervasive: inequality, war, the erosion of democracy, and the concentration of power in the hands of those who don’t necessarily care whether humanity writ large remains magnificent. Throughout the 200-page document, which the pope presented alongside Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, Leo argues that technology built and governed by a small elite cannot, by definition, serve the common good. “When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities,” he writes. “In fact, as with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise and access to data,” the encyclical continues, highlighting concerns that elites can use their power to “shape information and consumption patterns, influence democratic processes and steer economic dynamics to their own advantage.” The encyclical comes a few days after President Donald Trump delayed signing his executive order on AI, which would have given the government oversight over new models before they are released, reportedly on the urging of VC investor and former White House AI czar David Sacks. Pope Leo called for AI to be guided by “clear criteria and effective oversight” grounded in participation from communities that will be affected by it. More concretely, Leo called for an end to the AI arms race “for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets” that companies and countries believe will “secure geopolitical or commercial dominance.” “To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern,” he wrote. Again, these dynamics predate AI. Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 Rerum Novarum addressed the same concentration of power during the Industrial Revolution, but we needn’t look back that far. Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and deployment of the platform to help elect Trump; the hundreds of millions flowing from tech elites into super PACs to block AI regulation — the kind of pattern that clearly inspired Leo XIV’s work. The pope comes to the same conclusion that many have arrived at: the surreal power and capabilities of today’s AI raise the stakes enormously. Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told TechCrunch that AI-driven misinformation and deepfakes have “corroded our capacity to recognize what’s true and what’s not true, and that really has consequences for democratic politics.” The tech industry’s practice of “harvesting and manipulating” human data, he added, poses “fundamental challenges to cognitive freedom.” Topics AI , ai encyclical , Magnifica Humanitas , pope leo xiv , the vatican When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission . This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Rebecca Bellan Senior Reporter Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications. You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal. View Bio May 27 Athens, Greece StrictlyVC Athens is up next. Hear unfiltered insights straight from Europe’s tech leaders and connect with the people shaping what’s ahead. Lock in your spot before it’s gone. REGISTER NOW Most Popular You can no longer Google the word ‘disregard' Russell Brandom Six search engines worth trying now that Google isn’t really Google anymore Amanda Silberling Jensen Huang says he's found a ‘brand new' $200B market for Nvidia Julie Bort Sam Altman makes ‘mic drop' offer to every Y Combinator startup Julie Bort Google Search as you know it is over Sarah Perez Google updates its Gemini app to take on ChatGPT and Claude at IO 2026 Aisha Malik Google launches Antigravity 2.0 with an updated desktop app and CLI tool at IO 2026 Ivan Mehta