ROME — Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical on a Monday, a 42,000-word document addressing the safeguarding of human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. The pontiff signed the encyclical on May 15, exactly 135 years after Pope Leo XIII published 'Rerum Novarum,' the 1891 letter on workers’ rights and the limits of capitalism.

The new encyclical, written over a little more than a year following Pope Leo XIV’s election, draws explicit parallels to its predecessor. 'Today we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude, with perhaps even greater consequences,' Pope Leo XIV wrote, framing emerging technologies as a moral frontier comparable to the industrial upheavals of the 19th century.

Pope Leo XIV argues that while artificial intelligence 'often surpasses human intelligence in speed and computational capacity,' it merely imitates human intelligence and cannot access core human traits. He states that AI does not draw directly on human ideals such as love, compassion, creativity, genius, and a desire for justice. In light of this distinction, he calls for AI to be 'disarmed.'

The encyclical issues a stark warning about data exploitation, with Pope Leo XIV writing: 'Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information.' He identifies a central moral imperative of the current era: 'Here lies one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time: to ensure that shared knowledge becomes a true common good rather than an instrument of dominance.'

To illustrate the enduring power of human dignity, the encyclical references cultural works including Pablo Picasso’s painting 'Guernica,' which Pope Leo XIV describes as a 'denunciation of dehumanization,' and the film 'Schindler’s List,' which he calls a 'call to consign the past to oblivion.' He also describes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as expressing a desire for unity. Robert Prevost, who became Pope Leo XIV, closes with a note of agency and hope: 'Certain events make it clear that history can also change when individuals truly take the dignity of everyone seriously.'