A progressive pope takes aim at AI and risks killing its miracles
Bernie Sanders’ war against AI just gained a powerful new ally: the pope.
In a new encyclical considered to be his most important policy statement to date, Pope Leo XIV warns that AI "threatens to normalize an anti-human vision" and calls for regulation of the booming industry. According to Vatican News, the pontiff advises that technology must not be concentrated "in the hands of a few," but managed "so that the guiding principle is not solely profit but the dignity of every person and the common good of all people."
Channeling progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wants a federal moratorium on data center construction to slow the rapidly advancing technology, Pope Leo writes that AI cannot be allowed to throw people out of work "in the name of reducing costs and increasing profit." Like Bernie, the pope "expresses his hopes for a renewal of labor organizations."
The pope has linked his encyclical letter, which The Wall Street Journal writes is "poised to define Leo’s papacy," to an 1891 encyclical titled "Rerum Novarum," or "new things," which criticized social woes stemming from the Industrial Revolution. That missive was written by Pope Leo XIII, the predecessor who inspired the current pope’s choice of name. Leo XIV signed his encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas," on May 15, as did Leo XIII.
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It’s a telling choice. Yes, the Industrial Revolution created considerable suffering for early factory workers and migrants who flooded into cities ill-prepared to house or feed them. On the other hand, that same industrialization of manual work led to an unprecedented increase in living standards, health and prosperity. Before factories and machines took over production, travel and farming, most of humanity lived in abject poverty and on the edge of starvation.
The Industrial Revolution led to a huge boost in the production of everyday items such as clothes and furniture, and to lower costs. Real wages, meanwhile, climbed steadily over the course of the 19th century throughout the industrialized world, and the poverty rate declined sharply.
As described by the Adam Smith Institute, which champions capitalism: "It was the Industrial Revolution that generated the wealth that paid for advances in public health and sanitation. It led to the conquest not only of extreme poverty, but of curable and preventable diseases. Far from bringing poverty and misery to the masses, it did the opposite, lifting their material conditions at a rate and to a level never before witnessed in human history."
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That is the uplifting event in human history that Pope Leo XIII deplored. In the same vein, Pope Leo XIV is opposed to the progress and wealth creation promised by artificial intelligence. As with the early industrialists who developed the steam engine and the spinning jenny, Silicon Valley innovators are making fortunes from AI and becoming politically powerful.
Tech moguls acknowledge that some jobs will be overtaken by AI, but they also predict a boost to overall productivity, which will lead to more leisure time, less drudgery and other benefits. They also see AI leading to great medical advances. Bernie Sanders and Pope Leo XIV are narrowly focused on job losses; perhaps they cannot imagine the benefits.
They are not imagining the millions of people around the world suffering from diseases, such as Parkinson’s, that may soon be curable thanks to the analytical powers of AI. They evidently don’t know about Jorie Kraus, who was stricken with a rare genetic disorder and spent the first 73 days of her life in a neonatal ICU and her first two years struggling to breathe or speak. Thanks to an AI diagnosis, Jorie was prescribed a common muscle relaxer used to treat seizures, and suddenly her little body regained control of her muscles. It was a miracle. Her mother gushed to an audience, "I said, ‘It can’t be, and it can’t be so fast. It was almost like a light switch.’"
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Or they aren’t impressed by the medical community’s newfound ability to repurpose existing drugs with the help of AI. The BBC reports, "At Harvard Medical School, an AI model found nearly 8,000 approved drugs that could potentially be repurposed to treat 17,000 different diseases."
AI’s potential benefits are not limited to medicine. Large models can help streamline operations such as air traffic control or the TSA, helping to make flying safer and travel easier. Fraud and waste in government spending can more easily be tracked and eliminated. Many dull chores, such as drafting legal agreements or creating financial spreadsheets, can be done in a jiffy, while weather forecasting could become more accurate, helping people prepare for catastrophes.
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AI critics, including Bernie and the pope, are alarmed that the bots can do some things faster and cheaper than humans, raising concerns about employment prospects. Young people, especially, are worried about their futures, and increasingly hostile toward the industry. AI developers have not adequately addressed these concerns. They should be encouraging students to learn how to use artificial intelligence, and how to master its power, showing how it can enhance their skills and opportunities.
Meanwhile, AI critics have taken a toll. According to a Morning Consult survey of brands and industries, AI is in the top 10 most distrusted categories, ranking just above social media. Interestingly, Americans are becoming less enamored with AI even as they use it more. Meanwhile, skepticism about AI is confined almost entirely to the English-speaking developed world; residents of other countries are much more positive on ChatGPT, Gemini and the like.
AI creators may be brilliant, but they’re not doing a very good job promoting the new technology to Americans. They need to fix this by showing people what AI can do for them, and encouraging regulation, along with the Trump White House, that assuages concerns.
Otherwise, Bernie and the pope may shut them down, abandoning the field to countries, especially China, which will erect far fewer guardrails to protect humanity. That is a far more frightening prospect.