Pope Leo critiques AI, posthumanism in first encyclical

Pope Leo XIV released an encyclical on Monday on the growing concern of artificial intelligence for humanity. In his Magnifica Humanitas, Leo encouraged the "safeguarding" of "the human person in the time of artificial intelligence." This encyclical is a response to the AI and tech revolution and concerns that human beings are attempting to replace God with themselves.

Leo states in the first sentence that "humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together." 

He describes the story of the Tower of Babel, an iconic lesson in a people facing hardship after not putting God first. He recounts the people of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as settling in Shinar and deciding to "build a city and a tower 'with its top in the heavens.' Fearing being scattered across the earth, they sought to guarantee stability and power for themselves, and above all to 'make a name' for themselves.