Pope Leo XIV has encouraged a conference of Catholic legislators to ensure that AI is governed so as not to erode families and diminish humanity. Addressing the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN) on August 21, the Holy Father said that the “extraordinary progress” of AI has created possibilities that were previously unimaginable and the task of legislators was to “guide it wisely”.
The Pope said at the 17th annual ICLN meeting that sound legislation should “encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedoms”. Founded in 2010, the association is headquartered in Vienna and aims to support Catholic lawmakers worldwide.
“It should protect users from exploitation, preserve personal privacy, ensure transparency in the use of emerging technologies and guarantee that they strengthen democratic institutions,” he said.
“At the same time, the rapid development of artificial intelligence risks creating new forms of technological dependence, with poorer nations increasingly reliant on wealthier ones. We must remain vigilant in this regard, lest innovation become another vehicle for ideological or economic colonialism.
“Sadly, we are presented with a subtle form of domination when algorithms decide who is seen, who remains invisible, when digital platforms shape public discourse without accountability, and when the dignity of workers is subordinated to the optimisation of systems. Such developments reveal a new face of the ancient temptation to domination and mastery without service.”
To counter this, the Holy Father stated that the Church proposes a “civilisation of love” where AI is governed by “cultivating hearts capable of charity, compassion and responsibility”.
“In such a society, the first school of humanity would be the family,” he said. “For it is within the family that we first learn trust before calculation, generosity before competition, dialogue before division, and love before power. Artificial intelligence must never be allowed to erode this primary cell of society – whether by reducing persons and relationships to data and simulations, by flooding young minds with content that distorts desire, or by economic models that make family life economically precarious.”
The Pope encouraged those present to promote policies which strengthen families and parental education of children, stating that the world does not need an AI that “diminishes humanity”. Following the publication of his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which called for the regulation of AI and a humanity-first approach, the Holy Father has engaged with a number of public figures and organisations on the issue.
In July, he urged international dialogue on AI to engage with what he called an “epochal turning point”. His message, addressed to the AI for Good Global Summit, spoke in similar terms of encouraging technological advancement whilst avoiding “the potential misuses of algorithms and by the loss of human agency in critical areas”.
