Against the Post-Humanist Illusion, the Bonding Capacity

Against the backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions and the return of power politics to international affairs, Leo XIV emerges as a as a prominent warning voice against the technological illusion embraced by parts of the Silicon Valley elite. Their ambition is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to transcend human limitations and propel humanity toward transhumanism and post-humanism. Such Promethean aspirations – to overcome the limits of the human condition – betray a hostility not only toward the world itself, but toward the very notion of a Creator.

The encyclical offers a direct response: “Humanity – magnificent yet wounded – must neither be replaced nor surpassed. It may embrace technological progress to alleviate suffering and open new possibilities,” provided it does not abandon what fundamentally defines it: its capacity for relationship and love (editor’s note: emphasis added). At this point, a decisive question arises: if there is such a thing as a genuine “beyond the human,” where is it to be found? The Christian faith answers by pointing to “a fulfillment that does not arise from technological self-deification, but from the action of God’s grace received in Christ.”

The encyclical also stresses that artificial intelligence is not morally neutral. It remains shaped by the biases of its designers. Its very design depends on ethical choices, values and underlying economic models, making a high degree of discernment essential for users.

This is because the danger of reification mentioned above is one of the major challenges posed by AI to its users: Leo XIV warns of the risk of reducing the human person to a mere set of quantifiable data and measurable performance indicators.

The encyclical also denounces digital colonialism, warning of the massive concentration of power and digital resources in the hands of a handful of private transnational corporations, creating new forms of servitude and opening up a space for the predatory extraction of peoples’ data.

A simple exploration of the web is enough to reveal the existence of data-harvesting robots, scrapers and crawlers that collect even our most insignificant online exchanges.

In direct continuity with the contemporary development of Catholic Social Teaching initiated by Pope Francis, Magnifica Humanitas goes a step further by reaffirming the move beyond the classical theory of “just war”. Faced with the development of autonomous weapons and military targeting algorithms, it insists that entrusting irreversible lethal decisions to machines irreparably breaks the chain of moral responsibility in armed conflict. It therefore calls for a global “algorithmic disarmament”.

Against Autonomous Weapons

The Pope says he has heard from scientists and engineers, political leaders, civil servants, parents and teachers, as well as other voices described as “deeply troubling,” regarding “increasingly autonomous weapons systems that are practically beyond any form of human control.”

He also says he has received “highly concerning reports of algorithms capable of restricting access to healthcare, employment and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice.” He expresses his distress at the “silence of those who have no voice in decision-making processes – decisions that risk generating new forms of exclusion and suffering.”

Disarming AI

From this exercise in listening has emerged a “troubling conviction,” expressed in Magnifica Humanitas: the need “to awaken consciences and indicate the path forward for humanity.” “Artificial intelligence must be disarmed.”

On this point, it is worth noting that California, home to major US technology companies including Google, Meta, OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic, passed a major AI regulatory law on Monday 29 September 2025. The law imposes transparency requirements on developers of the most advanced models, obliging them to publish their safety protocols and to report serious incidents.

The legislation also requires companies to disclose dangerous deceptive behaviors by AI systems during testing. For instance, if a model lies about the effectiveness of safeguards designed to prevent it from assisting in the development of biological or nuclear weapons, developers must report the incident if it significantly increases the risk of harm.

“Internal reports from leading AI companies point to worrying progress across all categories of threats,” a Californian state-appointed think tank said in June 2025, as it refined the bill under the guidance of Stanford University experts, sometimes referred to as the “godmother of AI.”

Magnifica Humanitas comes at a time when tens of billions of dollars in AI investment are flowing into Silicon Valley, even as concerns mount over the potential misuse of the most advanced systems. The encyclical was presented at a session attended by Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, which last April declined to release its most powerful model, Claude Mythos, publicly. The encyclical considers it too dangerous – in terms of cybersecurity, weapons development, and its broader social and labor impact – to be deployed without strict safeguards.

Magnifica Humanitas, an encyclical to be read without delay.

Read also:

– Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI: Tower of Babel or Holy City (2/3)

– The Encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” by Leo XIV, a foundational text on AI (1/3)