By Aaron Lambert
There’s no escaping it: Artificial intelligence is everywhere, encroaching on virtually all aspects of daily life and causing both convenience and consternation alike.
We are indeed living in a “brave new world,” one that is becoming increasingly hard to navigate as people of faith. With the rapid onset of virtual assistants, AI-generated articles and art, chatbots and even robots, what once was mere science fiction has become a striking reality. Thankfully, Catholic social teaching, in all its wisdom and beauty, can offer some fundamental guiding principles as AI becomes more and more integrated into modern society.
As Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in the Vatican’s second annual conference on artificial intelligence, ethics and corporate governance, “AI, especially generative AI, has opened new horizons on many different levels, including enhancing research in health care and scientific discovery, but also raises troubling questions on its possible repercussions on humanity’s openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp and process reality. Acknowledging and respecting what is uniquely characteristic of the human person is essential to the discussion of any adequate ethical framework for the governance of AI.”
The implications of AI attempting to subvert the very essence of what it means to be human are, to say the least, quite startling, and indeed, some of these scenarios are already starting to play out in the culture at large at an alarming rate. In fact, the rate at which AI is progressing is so alarming that the Holy See saw fit to issue a note on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence in January of this year, titled “Antiqua et Nova.”
The note opens, “With wisdom both ancient and new (cf. Mt 13:52), we are called to reflect on the current challenges and opportunities posed by scientific and technological advancements, particularly by the recent development of artificial intelligence (AI).”
It is this “wisdom, both ancient and new” that the Church can offer at this critical juncture in human history. Though we are, in many ways, living through an unprecedented moment with the rapid advent and progression of AI, the Church can and must serve as a vital voice of morality, reason and spiritual authority as humanity stands at the precipice of the coming technological revolution.
“Antiqua et Nova” offers a critical guiding principle in this respect:
“In a world marked by AI, we need the grace of the Holy Spirit, who ‘enables us to look at things with God’s eyes,’ to see connections, situations, events and to uncover their real meaning. The ‘wisdom of the heart’ can illuminate and guide the human-centered use of this technology to help promote the common good, care for our ‘common home,’ advance the search for the truth, foster integral human development, favor human solidarity and fraternity and lead humanity to its ultimate goal: happiness and full communion with God. From this perspective of wisdom, believers will be able to act as moral agents capable of using this technology to promote an authentic vision of the human person and society. This should be done with the understanding that technological progress is part of God’s plan for creation — an activity that we are called to order toward the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, in the continual search for the true and the good.” (115-117).
As the Church engages in more important conversations and work surrounding AI, there are some who have been thinking deeply about this issue for years and already have their boots on the virtual ground. Father Philip Larrey, professor of philosophy at Boston College and author of “Artificial Humanity,” helped to cofound the nonprofit foundation Humanity 2.0 in 2017 with the aim of helping to guide the progression of AI toward the end of human flourishing.
“There are six domains for human flourishing,” Father Larrey explained. “And recently, as artificial intelligence has come on the radar, we asked what do we need to do with artificial intelligence in order to have human beings flourish? That’s the question. And we really don’t know the answer to that yet. Whenever I give a conference on AI, usually people are very afraid and they’re very concerned about their jobs, about the future of education, about learning, etc. So, we’re trying to steer conversation in terms of human flourishing.”
Some experts predict that artificial intelligence could replace as many as 300 million jobs within the next five years. “Obviously, if you’re going to lose your job, that’s not flourishing,” Father Larrey said. “How can we flourish as human beings without a job? That’s going to be the next big question. I think we can answer that. I think that there are ways that we can help people.”
Work has become inextricably linked to purpose in the modern age, and it is through this paradigm that much of the Western world has operated for centuries. As AI threatens to upend this paradigm and shift it completely, tech leaders and corporations would do well to look to the wisdom of the Church for a solution to this. On the cusp of the Industrial Revolution in 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote “Rerum Novarum,” an encyclical that addressed the condition of the working class and the universal call to uphold human dignity. More than 100 years later, another kind of revolution is here, yet the wisdom contained therein echoes all the same.
“Can human beings flourish without a job? According to ‘Rerum Novarum,’ no,” Father Larrey said. “Leo XIII said people need to have a job in order to preserve their dignity and their sense of life. (With AI), we may get to a point where that’s not the case. Pope Leo XIV even said that’s why he took the name of Leo. He wants to do for our generation what Leo XIII did for his generation, which was the Industrial Revolution. And I think we’re actually getting to that point quickly.”
Pope Leo XIV continues to speak about AI and the duty of humanity to proceed toward the impending technological revolution sensibly, responsibly and above all, bearing in mind and acting in accordance with what is true and good.
“No generation has ever had such quick access to the amount of information now available through AI,” Pope Leo said. “But again, access to data — however extensive — must not be confused with intelligence, which necessarily ‘involves the person’s openness to the ultimate questions of life and reflects an orientation toward the true and the good’ (‘Antiqua et Nova,’ 29). In the end, authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life than with the availability of data.”
Father Larrey tells his students that AI, as with any new technology, should be used as a tool and not a substitute for those miraculous and intrinsic qualities that make us human. Like the Internet and the television preceding it, AI is here to stay. In this AI age, it is the duty of the Church and her faithful to ensure that the divine image of humanity is preserved and not distorted.
“We have to learn how to live with AI,” Father Larrey said. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be negative, work with it and see how AI can help with human flourishing and not lead to humanity’s demise.”
Aaron Lambert is a writer from Denver.
