In his homily to the College of Cardinals May 10, Pope Leo XIV said that he had chosen his name partly because just as Pope Leo XIII addressed “the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” today, “the church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labor.”
What are some of these new challenges posed by artificial intelligence, or AI?
Joe Vukov, an associate professor of philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and the author of “Staying Human in an Era of Artificial Intelligence,” spoke with OSV News’ Charlie Camosy about these challenges and his hopes with this new papacy. Vukov, who serves on the AI Research Group for the Vatican’s Center for Digital Culture, also discussed a few ways the church might address the rise of AI.
— Charlie Camosy: First, can you just give us some early thoughts and impressions about the election of Leo XIV? First personally, we’ll get to professionally.
— Joe Vukov: I’m excited and hopeful! Pope Leo XIV is not only the first American-born pope, but he is also from Chicago, where I live and teach. I just checked Google Maps, and he was raised just a little over 40 miles from where I live now. That’s not next door, but a lot closer to the Holy Father’s childhood home than I ever thought I would live!
This moment is, I think, a great moment for the American church, and for American Catholics. We should all be encouraged that we have given the church a leader, and also challenged to be bolder in our prayer and proclamation of our faith. I pray that Leo XIV’s papacy is a time of evangelical fervor and renewal for the American church.
I’m also very encouraged by many of the early moments of Leo XIV’s papacy. While he will no doubt in some ways continue in the legacy of Pope Francis, I loved that he wore the red mozzetta and stole when he was introduced, signaling a nod to more traditionally minded Catholics as well.
His first homily as pope was excellent — laser-focused on the proclamation of Christ and humble and prayerful in tone. And as we will discuss more, he has already signaled his concern about the cultural challenges we are currently facing, brought on by the rise of artificial intelligences and other new technologies.
— Camosy: OK, now let’s exploit your professional background in philosophy, Catholic thought and technology. When I learned that our new Holy Father had taken the name Leo XIV, I immediately wondered if he saw himself as helping lead a response to massive cultural changes wrought by a technological revolution, just as Leo XIII was. What do you make of this?
— Vukov: I’m not surprised at all by the choice of name. One of my children (our toddler) is named Leo, and when we saw the white smoke billowing, I told the kids, “Of all your names, Leo is most likely for the pope’s new name!” And so it was.
As you say, Leo XIII was pope during a moment of great social and cultural change, much like today. Rather than an industrial revolution, however, we face a revolution brought on by distinctively 21st-century technologies — artificial intelligence, robotics, social media and the like. The new Holy Father, in his first address to the College of Cardinals, has confirmed that this indeed inspired his choice of name.
This isn’t a brand new priority for the church. Just two days before the Holy Father’s election, I was presenting to a USCCB committee — together with a panel of other experts — on the challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence raises. For the past couple years, both Pope Francis and the Vatican likewise repeatedly returned to the topic of AI and the current cultural revolution: most thoroughly in “Antiqua et Nova,” but also in other notes and addresses. “Dignitas Infinita” references AI and new technology, as does “Laudate Deum,” as did Pope Francis’ 2024 New Year’s Day address and his address to the G7.
The church has already emerged as a thought leader on issues of artificial intelligence and new technologies, and has signaled that the massive cultural shifts we are seeing demand careful reflection by our church and the Holy Father himself.
Going forward, I would love to see Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican and our bishops continue to take up this thought leadership. Again, we have already seen our new Holy Father signal that it will continue to be a priority for him.
I would also like to see even more in the way of concrete guidance for faithful Catholics. One thing I love about Catholic social teaching — inaugurated in some ways by Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” — is the balance it gives between abstract theological reflection and concrete advice. That’s what we need today. Yes, we need the abstract reflection and careful thought provided by “Antiqua et Nova.” But faithful Catholics are also hungry for concrete guidance. Pope Leo XIII provided that kind of guidance, and I’m hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will do so as well.
— Camosy: What are some ways in which Catholic ideas and practices can help address the technological concerns with which the Holy Father is concerned?
— Vukov: There are at least three: First, in this moment of social and technological change, it can be easy to lose sight of what makes us human. During Leo XIII’s papacy, humans were being reduced to “cogs in a machine,” and documents like “Rerum Novarum” resisted that view.
Today, we are facing a different kind of reductive view of our humanity — we are being presented with a vision according to which human intelligence can be artificially simulated, human achievement can be measured in terms of efficiency and productivity, and human relationships can be swapped out for digital ones. Compare that with the Catholic view of human nature, according to which our intelligence is essential embodied and oriented to the truth, human dignity is not a matter of what we accomplish but rather grounded in our status as bearers of the image of God, and our lives are essentially relational. The Catholic view of human nature is magnitudes richer than the one on offer in Silicon Valley. The world is hungry for such a view, and it is the job of Catholics to proclaim it boldly.
Second, the church’s social and cultural teachings can help us address the great crisis of dehumanization we are facing. This crisis is similar in some ways to the crisis we were facing during Leo XIII’s papacy. During both periods, cultural forces were challenging the dignity of workers, the value of work itself, and our understanding of what it means to flourish as a human being. “Rerum Novarum” and Catholic social teaching rose to meet these challenges. And we can readily draw on this tradition to meet our new cultural moment.
For example, we can lean on teachings about the dignity of workers as we reflect on strategies for responding to the ways in which AI is already reshaping the economy. But the cultural moment in which we are currently living is also dehumanizing in new ways, and will demand different kinds of responses from the church. Leo XIV’s papacy cannot simply rinse and repeat the wisdom of Leo XIII’s papacy. Today, we face new kinds of challenges.
I’m worried about large-scale dehumanization brought on by new technology, yes, but also dehumanization on a more personal level. I’m worried about a future in which, on a very personal level, we never ask a friend for a book recommendation because we rely entirely on the algorithms of online retailers; I’m worried about a future in which we are so reliant on our Fitbits and Google Maps that we lose touch with our own bodies and environments; I’m worried about a future in which we can no longer write an essay (or even a thank-you note) because we have become so reliant on large-language models like ChatGPT. That’s a dehumanized existence. Catholics will need to rely on existing Catholic social teaching to address it, yes, but also address this challenge of dehumanization in new ways.
A third way that Catholic ideas and practices can address current cultural and technological challenges is one that I think has gone underappreciated in many circles — in particular, our fundamentally spiritual view of the world. The challenges posed by new technologies are not merely cultural and economic. They are also profoundly spiritual. So it won’t be enough for Catholics to respond to these challenges on the philosophical, economic and cultural planes, though we certainly need to do that too. More importantly, we’ll need to respond to these challenges spiritually. And Leo XIV, in choosing the name Leo, has already positioned himself to take up this kind of leadership. More on that in a minute.
— Camosy: Is it too dramatic to wonder whether Catholics and others who reject certain uses of these technologies will have to be prepared to stand out in a new way from the surrounding culture? And, if so, do you think we’re up to the task?
— Vukov: I don’t think it is too dramatic at all. Like the Holy Father, I’m a Midwesterner and raised to be optimistic. But I have become less so over the last few years, at least in the face of our cultural moment.
Up until fairly recently, I regularly said that AI and other new technologies can be used for good, and that Catholics needn’t reject them wholesale. I still believe that — and indeed, this is what the church teaches — but I’ve grown pessimistic about what this might look like in practice. The temptations of modern technology — and its control over our lives — have simply become too strong and too pervasive. Yes, I think there are conditions in which Catholics can use AI and other new technologies. But these conditions are not as common as I used to think. And the stakes are too high to simply carry on as normal.
What this means is that as modern technologies are integrated more and more with our daily lives, Catholics may need to reject them. For example, we may need to refuse the integration of AI and other modern technologies in our workplaces, our entertainment choices, and our day-to-day lives. Increasingly, this will lead us to stand out from the wider culture, and sometimes in ways that will disadvantage us, or leave us looking outright bizarre.
Are we up to this task? Not on our own. But here is where we come back to the point about the need to respond to our cultural moment on the spiritual plane. Let’s not forget that Pope Leo XIII gave us not only “Rerum Novarum,” but also multiple encyclicals on the most holy rosary. He also composed the prayer to St. Michael, still said after holy Mass in many areas.
Leo XIII knew that in a moment of great social and cultural change, it isn’t enough for the church to defend herself and her teachings on the social and cultural level. She must also defend herself on a spiritual level, calling to her assistance all the forces at her disposal, most crucially, Our Lady, Terror of Demons, together with the angelic forces, led by St. Michael, to “be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.”
Our current moment is a moment of great cultural and technological challenges, yes, but also a moment of great spiritual challenges, one in which the devil’s snares are pervasive and dangerous.
I hope that our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, brings not only the vision of cultural clarity of Pope Leo XIII, but also the sense of spiritual urgency. Leo XIV’s first public prayer was to our most Blessed Mother. His first homily likewise ended with an appeal for the intercession of Mary. If we as Catholics are to face the current moment, we’ll need to muster all the spiritual forces at our disposal. In taking up the name Leo, and in what he has said so far, our new Holy Father has already signaled that this is the direction he’ll be leading us.
Charlie Camosy is professor of medical humanities at the Creighton School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, and moral theology fellow at St. Joseph Seminary in New York.
