MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Pope Leo XIV, in his first major teaching document, is warning that artificial intelligence is becoming a new test of human dignity, work and power. In the same document, the pontiff apologizes for the Vatican's role in legitimizing slavery. Megan Williams reports from Rome.
MEGAN WILLIAMS, BYLINE: Pope Leo's first encyclical, a letter to Catholic followers, places artificial intelligence at the center of one of the defining power struggles of our era.
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POPE LEO XIV: Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.
WILLIAMS: The document is an echo of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical more than a century ago that addressed the Industrial Revolution. This pope warns against new forms of exploitation, from data control to the workers and children extracting minerals used in digital technology. Father Michael Baggot is an AI expert.
MICHAEL BAGGOT: It's easy to forget the sort of invisible labor behind these AI systems that give some of us productivity advantages while others bear the burdens of terrifying forms of labor.
WILLIAMS: In a historic first, Leo apologizes for a much older form of exploitation, slavery, saying the church's failure to condemn it for centuries remains a, quote, "wound in Christian memory." The apology comes along with calls for stronger laws, independent oversight and more public control over AI. Leo said life-and-death decisions in the battlefield can't be handed over to algorithms. The Pope, trained as a mathematician, has a unique grasp of AI's potential and dangers, says Matthew Harvey Sanders, founder of the Catholic AI platform Magisterium.
MATTHEW HARVEY SANDERS: Part of it, I think, he's just an American. So, you know, he kind of grew up with technology and was very aware of the impacts of technology on his day-to-day life. So for that reason, I think he's always been a user of technology. He's also someone who's worked on the peripheries, parts of the world, and he knows what kind of impact it has when that technology is not available, right? Because he's had to work around those constraints.
WILLIAMS: Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah was also at today's Vatican launch, signaling the Catholic Church wants this message also heard by those building AI.
For NPR News, I'm Megan Williams in Rome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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