Pope Francis issued an apology for the role the Holy See and some Catholics played in the transatlantic slave trade, addressing historical complicity and calling for greater awareness and reconciliation. The apology comes amid ongoing discussions about the Church's historical actions and their lasting impact.
Simon Willison's notes on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica Humanitas" on AI, which addresses ethical challenges around interpretability, cultural biases, environmental impact, algorithmic decision-making, accountability, and data ownership. Willison also highlights his earlier prediction that the Pope would weigh in on AI's economic impact, which came true with the document's release.
Corey Quinn commented that getting the Pope to frame a company's technical limitations as a spiritual treatise is an unprecedented act of vendor lobbying, referencing Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah's influence on the papal encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*.