This week, Pope Leo XIV launched his first encyclical on AI titled 'Magnifica Humanitas' and I am grateful that I did not write my AI piece last week as originally planned and deferred to this one.

Pope Leo's letter marks the first intervention by a major faith leader on the subject of cutting-edge technology and AI and a welcome one at that. While discussing these subjects we forget organised faith as a key stakeholder and then one whose absence can be felt. It can be read in many ways. An appeal to common sense values. A critique of the breakneck speed with which all of this is unfolding and the arrogance and desire for dominance hiding behind it. In all these cases the document does not disappoint.

The Catholic church has a long history and you can take whatever you want from it. I choose to see it as an institution that gave us caring giants of humanity like Mother Teresa. The same love and care shows in the Holy See bringing back the spotlight to ontological dignity, the inherent, absolute, and unalienable worth that every human being possesses simply by virtue of existing. It also speaks against modern-day slavery where people in disaffected parts of the world are used to feeding this growth monster.

It is a document worth your time. I can, however, nitpick at some of the strands being discussed here. Take this quote for instance: "No computational system, however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil." This might not be a very accurate reading of how this technology works. Biologically it is true but it overlooks the nature of evolution, emergence and agentic misalignment. When........

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