Pope Leo urges legislators to protect marriage and family from AI

(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV urged Catholic legislators to safeguard marriage and the family amid the rapid advance of artificial intelligence, addressing participants in the XVII Annual Meeting of the International Catholic Legislators Network on Friday in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.

On the theme “Human Dignity and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges, Chances and Control,” the Pope presented AI’s progress as a defining moral challenge: “not merely what can we do, but what ought we to do?”

Drawing on his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he warned against constructing a new Tower of Babel of power and control, insisting instead that technology must serve the integral development of every person and help people “become more fraternal and responsible toward themselves and toward one another.”

He called on legislators to guide innovation wisely through sound laws that protect rights, privacy, and democratic institutions while resisting technological dependence and new forms of domination.

At the heart of his message, Leo XIV affirmed that “the first school of humanity would be the family,” where people “first learn trust before calculation, generosity before competition, dialogue before division, and love before power.”

Artificial intelligence, he stressed, “must never be allowed to erode this primary cell of society.” Therefore, he encouraged policies that “strengthen marriage and families, support parents in their educational mission and enable young people to look to the future with confidence,” so that AI becomes a servant of the common good rather than a force that diminishes humanity.

The full text of Pope Leo XIV’s address follows below:

Your Eminences,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is a joy for me to greet you, members of the International Catholic Legislators Network, and in particular, Cardinal Schönborn and Cardinal Bo, the Patrons of this Network.

The theme for your annual meeting, “Human Dignity and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges, Chances and Control,” gives you the opportunity to reflect upon one of the defining questions of our age. The extraordinary progress of artificial intelligence is opening horizons that previous generations could scarcely have imagined. Yet every technological achievement also confronts humanity with a moral question: not merely what can we do, but what ought we to do? Indeed, our human family today faces a decisive choice. As I wrote in the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, we may be tempted to construct a new Tower of Babel, where power, efficiency and control obscure the face of the human person; or we can build a civilization in which technology serves the integral development of every person (cf. nos. 7-10). The decisive question remains the same: Does technology help people to become more fraternal and responsible toward themselves and toward one another? In this regard, the principles of the Church’s Social Doctrine — the inviolable dignity of every person, the common good, the universal destination of goods, subsidiarity and solidarity — provide the sure criteria for discernment.

Dear legislators, your vocation places you at the heart of this challenge.  Responsible for providing policies for the administration of technology for the common good, your task is not to hinder innovation but to guide it wisely (cf. Francis, Address to the Participants in the Meeting promoted by the International Catholic Legislators Network, 27 August 2021). Sound legislation should encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedoms. It should protect users from exploitation, preserve personal privacy, ensure transparency in the use of emerging technologies and guarantee that they strengthen democratic institutions.

To this end, “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required” (Magnifica Humanitas, no. 106). Such oversight can operate at multiple levels — local, national and international — facilitating open discussion of “the ethical frameworks involved and subjecting them to shared standards of social justice” (no. 107), and ensuring that no single ideology or interest dictates the values embedded in artificial intelligence systems.

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 (cf. nos. 178-179). 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 optimization of systems (cf. nos. 95, 150, 171). Such developments reveal a new face of the ancient temptation to domination and mastery without service.

Against this culture of power the Church proposes “the civilization of love” (Paul VI, Regina Caeli, 17 May 1970; cf. Magnifica Humanitas, no. 186) — one that would govern artificial intelligence wisely by cultivating hearts capable of charity, compassion and responsibility. In such a society, the first school of humanity would be the family. 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. For this reason, I encourage you to promote policies that strengthen marriage and families, support parents in their educational mission and enable young people to look to the future with confidence.

Dear friends, the world does not need an artificial intelligence that diminishes humanity; rather, it needs human intelligence enlightened by wisdom, political authority guided by conscience and technological innovation directed by charity. Only then will artificial intelligence become not a rival to humanity but a servant of the common good.

With these thoughts, I pray that your deliberations will bear abundant fruit for your nations and for the entire human family. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, accompany you always. Upon you, your families and all those entrusted to your service, I willingly invoke God’s abundant blessings.

Thank you.

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