Business Leaders Hold The Pen On AI’s Next Chapter

Today’s StocksMoneyMarketsBusiness Leaders Hold The Pen On AI’s Next ChapterByMartin Whittaker,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Martin Whittaker, CEO of Just Capital, covers responsible business.Follow AuthorMay 28, 2026, 10:25am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.A picture shows Pope Leo XIV Encyclical Letter "Magnifica Humanitas", focused on the rise of artificial intelligence, in The Vatican on May 25, 2026. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesBusiness leaders are entering an AI moment that looks less like a technology cycle and more like a hinge in history, the kind where the choices of a few determine the fate of many. Two texts released this week — one from the Vatican, one from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — make that unmistakably clear.The first was Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI and human dignity. It is a remarkable missive from the first American pope and former mathematics major who is staking his papal legacy on a vision and mandate that AI must serve humanity, not diminish it. The second was an analysis published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by Cambridge astrophysicist Hiranya Peiris, warning that AI systems currently operate without safety guardrails governing their overall decision pathways — which means they can chart a course to catastrophe faster than humans can detect it, let alone reverse it.Read together, these two texts frame the current operating environment with clarity. One speaks to our highest aspirations, the other to the existential threats. Neither offers a message of despair. Both serve as calls to action for leaders. Leaders Still Shape The OutcomeWhat gets lost in the noise of quarterly earnings calls and model upgrades is that the outcome of this transition is not predetermined. The trajectory of artificial intelli...