Pope Leo has issued an encyclical warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence, drawing a parallel between the potential threat of AI and the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. The document cautions that unchecked technological advancement could lead to societal division and a loss of human dignity.
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*.