Pope Leo to address human dignity in the age of AI

Artificial intelligencePope Leo to address human dignity in the age of AIThe pope will join leading Catholic theologians and an Anthropic co-founder on Monday to release a landmark encyclical on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Chelsea Stahl / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 24, 2026, 8:00 AM EDTBy Jared PerloPope Leo XIV is set to release a landmark encyclical Monday focused on preserving human dignity in the face of AI.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The pope, who has been outspoken about AI’s potential to encroach on human values, will be joined in Vatican City by leading Catholic figures and Chris Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic.The document will be Leo’s first encyclical, a special papal letter that is sent to all bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. The encyclical, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” comes amid growing backlash to AI’s environmental, social and educational impacts.“We are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human,” Leo said Friday at a Vatican conference on AI, highlighting “the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity and the damage caused when chatbots and other technologies exploit our need for human relationships.”Leo has made AI a focus of his young tenure. Just days after his election in May 2025, the pope told the College of Cardinals that the church could offer unique advice on how to approach “developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”At the time, the pope said he chose his name partially in homage to Pope Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” shared teachings on how to navigate another transformative period, the industrial revolution.Last week, Leo XIV also approved the creation...