'AI has no soul': Pope Leo expected to address AI's ethical challenges

Is thinking basically computing? Are humans just biological versions of machines – only less efficient than their AI counterparts?

The concept that people may develop such a mindset is a major concern for Catholic observers given the breakneck pace at which AI is developing.

“As soon as you start thinking of yourself as a machine, only not as good, then you’re just a commodity and have no other reason to live,” said John Cavadini, director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “It’s a pathway to desolation.”

That’s why Cavadini and others are looking forward to the imminent release of Pope Leo XIV’s first major encyclical, expected to address the growing ethical and moral challenges of artificial intelligence.

The treatise will be Leo’s most authoritative document to date, as topical as it is symbolic: Though the Vatican has set no specific date, a May 15 release would come 135 years to the day that Pope Leo XIII, with whom the current pontiff shares his name, issued what is considered the first social encyclical of modern times, Rerum Novarum.

“He’s expected to speak specifically to AI and larger questions of human work and labor being faced in many political contexts right now,” said Nicholas Hayes-Mota, a social ethicist and public theologian at Santa Clara University in California.

With the choice of Leo as his papal name, Hayes-Mota said the first-ever U.S.-born pope indicated a commitment to Catholic social teachings aligned with his namesake: Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, issued in 1891, focused on the working class and social justice and is considered a foundational document for the church.

“Not only did Leo XIV signal that he wanted to continue this, but he perhaps had in mind recentering that question in a time of economic upheaval,” Hayes-Mota said.

The rapid rise of AI, while technologically dazzling, has prompted widespread anxieties on multiple fronts, including job security, human worth and potential misuse by malevolent actors looking to commit fraud, spread disinformation or foment hate.

What is an encyclical?

As the term implies, an encyclical is a "circular letter" designed to be shared among a community.

A papal encyclical is among the church’s most significant forms of communication, historically issued to all clergy, regional religious leaders or all Catholic faithful. It typically addresses an aspect of Catholic teaching to amplify, clarify or condemn a particular issue. Nearly 300 papal encyclicals have been produced since the first was authored in 1740 by Pope Benedict XIV.

While Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum is considered the first to address social challenges, many others have followed suit: Pope John XXIII appealed for peace in 1963, Pope John Paul II addressed economic freedom and capitalism in 1991, and Pope Francis tackled climate change and its disproportionate effects on the poor in 2015.

The risks of comparison with machines

Cavidini, who is also a professor of theology at Notre Dame, believes Pope Leo’s encyclical “will be a decisive articulation of the beauty of human dignity as it becomes more vulnerable to digital insult.”

Thinking, he said, is so much more than simple computation.

“It involves all of your desires and struggles,” he said. “That machine doesn’t have a soul. Machines don’t suffer. You do. And out of that suffering comes spiritual growth. This is the glory of being human.”

Daniel Daly, executive director of the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health, said it will be important for the pope to address the elements that distinguish people from machines.

“AI has no empathy, no conscience, no soul,” Daly said. “It appears to be human because it mimics human behavior, but it’s a thing, not a person. We need to make sure we preserve that distinction.”

Thinking otherwise, Daly said, runs the risk of degrading human existence.

“That’s terribly dangerous,” he said. “We start to look at people as machine to be used and not as transcendently valuable human persons in their own right.”

Daly said he hopes the pope addresses the importance and value of human work. As AI continues to advance, he said, “some people are promising a world without work. But work doesn’t just feed us and our families. It’s the primary way we contribute to the common good. A life without work is not worthy of a human person.”

Catholic healthcare observers worry

Artificial intelligence is an issue the theology and ethics center is already confronting, having hosted a conference earlier this year on AI, medicine and Catholic healthcare. The overarching concern, Daly said, is whether AI will be leveraged to promote human flourishing or whether efficiency and productivity will become the focus, leaving patients behind.

“What does it do to the patient-professional relationship?” he said. “Will it be used to enhance, to allow the professional to listen to the patient? Or is it replacing the role of the healer? That would be an enormous loss to healthcare overall.”

Another overlooked but important risk of AI, Daly said, is that technological advances tend to favor those already represented in such settings – in other words, those adept with new technology and who have electronic health records.

“We shouldn’t have a two-tiered health system,” Daly said. “Unless we put energy into making sure it benefits all people, it will tend to skew toward those who already have access to high-quality healthcare…. This is an invitation for the human community to become the protagonist and seize the moment to make sure it promote wellbeing for everyone, not just those who are advantaged.”

High hopes for Leo's treatise

Hayes-Mota hopes the papal document can place the church, especially in the U.S., at the forefront of an emerging and urgent public conversation. The pope, he said, can play a leading role in fostering that conversation and ensuring it’s “anchored in moral values” and the fundamental questions AI is raising.

In the 1980s, he said, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a pair of pastoral letters – “The Challenge of Peace” (1983) and “Economic Justice for All” (1986) – that some took as criticizing the priorities of President Ronald Reagan’s administration. Instead, they were trying to accomplish something more profound, Hayes-Mota said.

“They were trying to start a new public conversation within the Catholic church but also among the public at large,” he said. “They wanted to say that there are fundamental moral issues at stake that we need to talk about in a democracy.”

The documents prompted public hearings and garnered media attention. The moment, Hayes-Mota said, was seen as a highwater indication of how the church can be engaged as a public voice, bringing a moral dimension into issues commonly viewed as political.

“I think there’s an opportunity for the global church and the U.S. church to do that with AI,” he said. “If Leo’s encyclical could catalyze that, it could be a profound contribution to our society and model what the church’s role in the world looks like.”

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY