Will We Rule AI or Will AI Rule Us? Pope Leo Weighs In.

One ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.   The Lord of the Rings

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. 

It is also the day that Pope Leo chose to release his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.’ 

The release of Magnifica humanitas coincides with the 135^th anniversary of the release of the landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo VIII in 1891. Pope John Paul II released a second, and equally strong, update of Rerum Novarum, which he called Laborem Exercens in 1981 and another called Centesimus Annus in 1991. 

Rerum Novarum affirmed both the humanity of working people, and their moral right before God to earn a just wage in humane working conditions which elevated, rather than degraded, their dignity as human beings. Both Laborem Exercens and Centesimus Annus reaffirmed this teaching in unambiguous terms. 

I’m going back through this history because it affirms that Magnifica humanitas stands on the solid ground of a long line of consistent Catholic teaching. It’s not “liberal” to say that the dignity and worth of human beings is inviolate.  It is not “socialism” or “woke” to assert the basic fact that the human rights of individual human beings are not cancelled out by the sick hoarder’s greed  of the wealthy. 

Those are not political statements at all. They are profound and essential statements of basic Christian morality. They are the Gospels of Christ applied to the working life of working people. 

To put it in simple and stark language, the exploitation of working people to feed the greed of a few wealthy and powerful  men violates the teachings of Christ and the meaning of the words God created humankind in His Image; in the Image of God He created them; male and female, He created them. 

The legitimate and holy work of government is to act as a guarantor of the basic human rights of the citizenry which it governs. But far too often the concentration of the wealth of nations in a few hands allows a few wealthy men to take over the reins of power and use government as a force to gather more power and money to themselves at the expense of the common good and even the lives of ordinary citizens. 

We are witnessing that in America today. 

At the same time, technology, which can be either a servant of human beings or their master, depending on what laws and regulations governments put in place, continuously develops new and innovative devices and abilities. These devices and abilities can either help human beings to live fuller lives, or they can be used to oppress and even enslave whole populations. 

Since human beings made the first flint knife, the steady march of technology and science has been used to terrorize and murder human beings as well as empower and advance them. 

Today, humanity faces its newest technological innovation in AI. Like all technology, AI can be our master or our servant, and it is the job of government protect us from its worst abuses.  

Our American government should serve as a guarantor of the individual rights and safety of We the People against the obvious potential for oppression, destruction and abuse which AI offers. It is the job of our government to do its part to make sure that we harvest the potential for the good AI might do while protecting us from those who want to use it to enslave us.  

Unfortunately, the Trump administration is working actively to use AI to create a surveillance state that will enslave Americans in ways that would never have been possible to dictators and tyrants of the past. They have not hidden this. Instead, they talk openly about it. 

 The Trump administration allowed Elon Musk to sweep vast amounts of government data containing all sorts of deeply private and supposedly protected information about each one of us into AI databases. Much of what Musk did violated laws that were designed to keep this information safe from such abuses. 

ICE agents routinely photograph protestors with the stated intention of sweeping the photos into a government database to track these people in the future. 

The federal government under Trump is constantly trying to force states to give it the private voter files of American voters. Many people think they are doing this so they can purge people they don’t want to vote from the voter rolls. 

I could go on. But I don’t need to. The point is made. The Trump administration is building a vast AI database of American citizens’ private information. 

At the same time, Trump has placed his private attorney in charge of the Justice Department and is personally directing it to “investigate” and charge people with bogus charges because they have made him angry or offended him. How long will it be before ordinary Americans will find themselves under AI-directed surveillance? How long before we are forced to be careful what we say, even in our own homes, for fear of being “investigated” or falsely charged with made-up crimes?

These are not far off events. They’re right here. They’re happening now.

AI, like all technology, has the power to enhance our lives. But AI, far more than any previous technological advance, has the power to imprison and enslave us in a dreadful and evil surveillance dictatorship from which there is no escape. 

Our government is not making any attempt whatsoever to regulate or rein in the destructive potential of AI. It is totally derelict in this regard, as it is in almost every other thing that a government is supposed to do for its citizens. 

Instead of governing this country, our government is engaged in internal warfare between two factions, one of which is constantly thinking of new ways to steal government monies and use this money —which is OUR money — to enrich a handful of billionaires while  constantly taking away what government does for ordinary citizens. The other faction is resisting these efforts, but since it is outnumbered in both houses of Congress, it isn’t able to more than make speeches. 

The lies, corruption and lawlessness have reached the point where Trump and a few of his favored billionaires break any law they want, anytime they want. The laws of this country no longer apply to them. The law only applies to us. 

The last remaining voice who has the gravitas to speak effectively for the human rights of human beings in the face of the lawlessness and greed on the part of those who control AI is the pope. The one person on the whole planet who is both willing to raise the question of human rights and basic morality in regards to the behavior of these few billionaires and the vast power they exercise and who has the platform and voice to be heard is Pope Leo. 

Because of that, Magnifica humanitas is not just a teaching designed to shape the walk with Christ of almost 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, it is the candle in the darkness for every single person who values his or her own life and freedom. This encyclical is Christ, speaking through Pope Leo, saying to us once again, Not a sparrow falls from the sky but that My Father takes note of it, and you are worth more than many sparrows. 

God cares about ordinary people. Christ was not born a king or a billionaire. He was the adopted son of a carpenter. Is this not the carpenter’s son? The people who knew Him asked. Jesus was an ordinary working man. 

God chose to be incarnated as an ordinary worker. 

Let me say that again. God chose to be incarnated as an ordinary worker. One of us. 

The Church has had a lot to say about the dignity of working people, and it is saying it now, in this time, to us. 

America has lost its morals and its faith. 

One of the most telling ways to know this is that even the clergy discard the Gospels and bow down to money and power. When Herod mocks Christ openly by portraying himself as Jesus, these fallen and failing clergy excuse him for doing it.

I want to invite you to read through Magnifico humanitas with me. I would also like for us to take a refresher course in Rerum Novarum and Larborem Exercens. I think it’s important for us to do that because we’ve got a few bishops and many “Catholic” media stars who have set Rerum Novarum aside in favor of the “teachings” of right-wing billionaire-funded political operatives like the Heritage Foundation. 

I’m a poor choice to be trying to explain these things and I know it. I’m not a theologian. I’m just a back-pew-sitting ailing and elderly grandmother who loves Jesus. 

 But this is not being taught in our churches. Meanwhile, Catholic media is teaching the exact opposite of what the popes have taught. They’re teaching what   politicized right wing Evangelical clergy and billionaire-funded right wing think tanks teach. They are actively leading people away from the teachings of Christ, and they’re doing it for money. 

So, I guess, here am I. With fear, trembling and lot of prayer, I’ll do my best to do what God wants. 

Note: You can find Rerum Novarum and Laborem Exercens on the Vatican website. “God created humankind in His Image …” Is found in Genesis 1:27. “Not a sparrow falls from the sky … you are worth more …” is a shortened version of Matthew 10:29-31. “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” Is a slight paraphrase of Matthew 13:55. “Here am I” is a quote from Isaiah 6:8. As an aside, I have to tell you that I am not comparing myself with Isaiah. I just felt that the sense of “I guess I have to do this” that he may have felt seems meaningful to me at this time.