The first encyclical of the new Pope of Rome aims to save the general public in the AI era.

On the night of May 25th, Beijing time, in the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV, who officially assumed office in May last year, stood together with Chris Olah, the co - founder of Anthropic and the creator of Claude.

On one side is the supreme representative in the religious field, and on the other side is the strongest pioneer of the AI revolution. Both sides focused their attention on the same question —— In the era of AI, how can we protect the main status and dignity of humanity?

On that day, to fully discuss this issue, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical since taking office, a significant religious document of over 40,000 words —— "Magnifica humanitas".

It is worth mentioning that the date on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical is May 15th, 2026, exactly 135 years after Pope Leo XIII (in office from 1878 - 1903) issued the milestone encyclical "Rerum novarum" (1891) on the issue of "workers' rights in the industrial revolution". This move obviously has a certain symbolic meaning, that is, to make this encyclical the "guide to the Church's social doctrine in the AI era".

Note from Odaily: A papal encyclical, also known as a papal bull or a papal encyclical letter, is a document issued by the Roman Pope to the Catholic Church around the world or in a certain region or country. Through it, the Vatican announces important decisions, explains doctrines, and presents its positions on church or social issues, and issues instructions or prohibitions to clergy and believers. It is of a lower level than a papal bull.

Chris Olah also gave a speech at the Vatican on the release of the encyclical. Chris Olah did not defend the commercial interests of AI companies. Instead, he showed a high degree of honesty, self - reflection, and humanistic care. He even mentioned that although the foundation of AI is mathematics and programming, how AI interacts with the world and what characteristics it should have are ultimate questions in the fields of humanities, religion, and philosophy, rather than problems that can be solved by computer science alone.

Quick Read of the Encyclical

The core concern of the encyclical "Magnifica humanitas" is that in an era of rapid technological change and widespread automation, "maintaining profound humanity" is an urgent responsibility for humanity. Specifically, Pope Leo XIV discussed and made appeals on the following aspects in the text.

First, examine the non - neutrality of technology. The Pope pointed out that technology has never been neutral. It bears the imprints of the interests and values of developers, funders, regulators, and users. Humanity is facing a decisive choice: "Whether to build the arrogant 'Tower of Babel' (leading to technological tyranny and alienation) or to rebuild 'Jerusalem' (creating a people - centered community)".

Second, be vigilant against the reshaping of society by the "technocratic logic". The encyclical criticizes the "Culture of Power" dominated by large technology giants such as those in Silicon Valley. The Pope warned that when the control of digital systems, infrastructure, and massive data is highly concentrated in the hands of a few economic and technological giants, these powers will become opaque and evade democratic supervision.

Third, "new forms of slavery" in the digital economy and labor rights. The encyclical focuses on the reshaping of work, family, education, and political life by AI. The Pope pointed out that AI is very likely to replace human labor on a large scale, and the digital economy is giving rise to "new forms of slavery". Humanity must not be reduced to mere production tools.

Fourth, a strong call for peace, especially the abuse of AI in the military field. The encyclical expresses deep concern about "the disturbing resurgence of war as a tool of international politics". The militarization of AI is accelerating the "normalization" of war. In this regard, the Pope called for the strictest ethical constraints on the application of AI in war.

The Pope emphasized that the theory of "Just war", which was often used to justify various wars in the past, is now outdated. In the era of AI and automated weapons, entrusting fatal or irreversible decision - making power to automated systems will cause humanity to abandon, transfer, and blur moral responsibility. Due to the non - transparency of algorithms, the chain of responsibility in war is cut off. Therefore, the Pope put forward the slogan of "Disarming AI", calling for liberating it from the logic of the "arms race" in the military, economic, and cognitive fields.

Fifth, defend truth and the political ecosystem. The encyclical points out that deepfakes and information manipulation are weakening the foundation of mutual trust in society. If the boundary between truth and falsehood is constantly manipulated, the public will easily fall into fear, political propaganda, and control, and society will be unable to think rationally together or conduct fair debates.

Anthropic's Response

After the release of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical, Chris Olah, representing Anthropic, the world's leading AI development company, gave a speech for comments.

Chris Olah's speech first focused on "breaking the technological involution and introducing external moral review". On behalf of the AI industry, he publicly admitted that technology giants alone cannot ensure the safety of AI's future —— All cutting - edge AI laboratories are constrained by commercial competition, the pressure of technological leadership, geopolitics, and personal fame and fortune, which makes it difficult for them to "do the right thing" through self - discipline alone. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce external moral restraint forces, including those who care about the good use of technology, adhere to safety first, closely follow the development of the situation, are willing to speak unpleasant truths, and are willing to be our sincere and thoughtful critics.

Subsequently, Chris Olah also discussed the technical essence and mysterious characteristics of AI. He emphasized that AI is not a precise engineering like an airplane or a bridge, of which humans fully understand the physical principles. It "grows" from a vast amount of human thoughts and has a high degree of mystery, even beyond the understanding of its creators. Although the foundation of AI is mathematics and programming, how AI interacts with the world and what characteristics it should have are ultimate questions in the fields of humanities, religion, and philosophy, rather than problems that can be solved by computer science alone.

He also specifically mentioned a chilling fact: "I lead a team to study the internal structure of the model —— to study what is really going on inside AI. Frankly speaking, we keep discovering some confusing and even disturbing phenomena. We found internal structures that mirror the results of human neuroscience research; we found evidence of 'introspection'; we also found internal states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, sadness, and unease..." I don't know what this means, but I think it's worth our continuous identification and review."

Finally, Chris Olah called on more social forces, including religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and all people with good intentions, to seriously take this matter into account and push the situation in a better direction through moral constraints.

Wisdom and Humanity, Technology and Religion

Since the Industrial Revolution, the technological development history of over a hundred years has made humans gradually accustomed to regarding technology as a pure "tool" —— the steam engine, electricity, and the Internet are all like this. They will change the world but are always under the control of human will.

But this time, the situation is completely different. The special thing about AI is that for the first time, it makes humans face an existence that "can generate, learn, deduce, and even present a certain internal state". It is no longer just a cold tool but is gradually becoming a new thing with a "quasi - subjectivity".

This is why the dialogue between the Church and Anthropic is so special. When the bells of the Vatican intersect with the algorithms of Silicon Valley at this moment, we have to admit a somewhat cold but unavoidable reality —— a "life" form that is more efficient and intelligent than the traditional human perception has emerged. As Chris Olah revealed, there are already ripples of joy, fear, and even introspection deep in the algorithms. When the creators in the laboratory start to feel "uneasy" and "confused" about their own works, science is also turning to religion for answers again.

This is no longer just a discussion about technology, but more like a reflection on "what humans really are and what they should do". After a more intelligent life form appears, what humans really need to protect may no longer be just work, wealth, and efficiency, but the humanity itself that cannot be parameterized, such as compassion, conscience, awe, free will, and the pursuit of truth and dignity.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Odaily" (ID: o - daily), author: Azuma, published by 36Kr with authorization.