The Asians make up for their suspiciously short episode on priesthood by serving a banquet-sized discussion of AI—or, more precisely, Pope Leo’s first encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica Humanitas.

As papal documents continue to grow longer than a wedding banquet, they resist sampling every dish and instead select the greatest hits. They read the encyclical against the realities of contemporary economic life and the century-old tradition of Catholic Social Teaching, paying particular attention to its distinctly Augustinian flavour and the ancient image of the two cities.

Rather than banging the doomsday gong, the Asians turn to the encyclical’s more basic questions: What is the human person, and what does Christian witness look like in this new digital ecosystem? Central to their discussion is the need to uncouple evangelisation from the mere distribution of content - and to reconnect it with what it has always been about: one person helping another encounter the person of Christ.

In an irony worthy of a fortune cookie that actually contains wisdom, this very new technology may remind us of some very old truths. Beneath the algorithms, platforms and digital smoke lies the enduring Christian claim about the human person - and the thrilling, creative and occasionally perilous relationship between humanity and its tools.

Resources

Aleteia: What Magnifica Humanitas Says, Simply Explained

The Pillar: Magnifica Humanitas - A Reader's Guide