Pope Leo XIV publishes Magnifica Humanitas, the first papal encyclical on artificial intelligence

Filed retrospectively. Before the Specola kept its nightly watch, these were the observations that turned the telescope.

On May 25, 2026, the Vatican published Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV and the first papal encyclical devoted to artificial intelligence. The pope signed the document on May 15, 2026, the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the 1891 encyclical of his namesake Leo XIII on labor and the first industrial revolution.

The encyclical addresses the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI. It argues that technology is never neutral, since it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it. “Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice,” the text states.

Leo calls for the “disarming” of AI and warns against a race for ever more powerful algorithms driven by geopolitical or commercial dominance. As reported by CBS News, the document warns that AI could make civilization “less human” by hollowing out employment, concentrating wealth, and reducing people to systems driven by data and efficiency.

Unusually, the pope attended the presentation of the encyclical in person, joined by Vatican prelates, theologians, and Christopher Olah, co-founder of the AI company Anthropic. That appearance is recorded separately in this archive.