The issue of artificial intelligence (AI) is primarily a question of what it means to be a human being. In Magnifica Humanitas (MH), Pope Leo XIV shows awareness of how technology has improved humanity’s living conditions (MH 5).
It has the power “to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home” (MH 9). For the Pope, “It is certainly desirable for technology to relieve humans of arduous, repetitive or dangerous tasks and to provide intelligent support for human activity” (MH 152).
At the same time, he knows that “it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice” (MH 9). Pope Leo makes the important point that “technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it” (MH 9).
That is why it is critical for him that AI be “devised, financed, regulated and used” to make our world “a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible” (MH 1).
For Pope Leo, we need to be clear that “intelligence” in AI is markedly different from human intelligence. He writes, “So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom” (MH 99).
The Pope contends that any understanding of AI, including its development and uses, must be grounded in our dignity as persons. As he reminds us, “At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27) of the Triune God. Created for relationship, every human person is planned and willed by God to enter into communion with him, with others and with creation. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made; instead, it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love. For this reason, the human person always remains the ‘way for the Church’ and the heart of every authentic path of integral human development” (MH 50).
Pope Leo is not saying anything new here, since the Catholic social doctrine considers human dignity its very foundation, its cornerstone. We see this in the social encyclicals. For instance, when Pope Leo XIII fought for workers’ rights in Rerum Novarum, it was because they were endowed with inalienable dignity.
In Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI taught that genuine development must always be holistic, with due regard for the totality of the human person and human dignity. Pope John Paul II further developed the Church’s reflection on workers’ rights in Laborem Exercens, stating that work ought to correspond to, express, and increase human dignity (9). In Centesimus Annus, he affirmed the transcendent dignity of human beings, created and called by God to communion with him.
Nevertheless, Pope Leo’s renewed affirmation of human dignity is especially significant given the threats to human dignity. As the Pope himself sees it, “It is important to ensure that this growth in appreciation of human dignity is not obscured by the pressure of new ideologies or very powerful interests in today’s world.”
Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify their own worth, to the point of assigning greater value to those who are more efficient or effective.
From this perspective, persons are reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as proper ends in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to “everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them” (MH 51).
Perhaps there is no better example of the influence of this “insidious ideology” than when former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, in defending his violent “war on drugs,” claimed, “Crime against humanity?”
In the first place, I’d like to be frank with you: Are they humans? What is your definition of a human being? Regrettably, his followers unquestioningly accepted that suspected criminals are less than human and, by implication, have no right to due process.
When Pope Leo speaks of dignity, he has in mind “the more profound and important level of ontological dignity. This is the dignity that belongs to every human being simply by virtue of existing, of having been willed, created and loved by God. No sin, failure, humiliation or exclusion can diminish the profound value of a human life that God has willed and called into being” (52).
This point cannot be emphasized enough. Our dignity does not depend on what the powerful, the wealthy, and the influential say about us. It is grounded in our very being, willed into existence by God and loved unconditionally and infinitely (see MH 53).
Sadly, too often, we place our worth, self-esteem, and self-acceptance on how others and society see us. We feel the need to prove to others that we are lovable. We act as if we are not enough, and because of that insecurity, we go to great lengths to gain other people’s affirmation and acceptance.
Perhaps, instead of seeing ourselves as others see us, we need to see ourselves as God sees us – created in God’s image, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Spirit. We are God’s beloved. For God, we are enough. We are lovable. Our dignity is a gift from God, totally unmerited on our part. At the same time, it is our task to grow in that dignity as we love, show compassion, and offer forgiveness, and as we do our part in building a more just world in which the dignity of all is upheld and promoted.
With thanks to Global Catholic and Ruben Mendoza, where this article originally appeared.
