Pope Leo XIV has once again taken a firm and clear stance on a crucial issue of our time: artificial intelligence. In a message addressed to participants of the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, held in Geneva from July 8-11, the Supreme Pontiff recalled that humanity's future will depend not merely on the technology itself, but on how it is used. A use which, in his words, must be founded on human dignity, justice, and the common good.
From the very beginning of his message—delivered by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin—Leo XIV is keen to emphasize that the moral burden does not rest solely on engineers or large tech corporations. Those who design these systems certainly bear a great share of responsibility, but those who use them also bear one. A way of saying that ethics does not stop at the source code or lines of algorithms: it must permeate every stage, from conception to daily use.
"Humanity is at a crossroads," affirms the Pope. This digital turning point, driven by the artificial intelligence revolution, now affects all sectors: education, work, art, health, government, the military, communication. Nothing escapes it.
But while elites speak of innovation, the Pope recalls a truth often silenced: nearly 2.6 billion people worldwide still lack access to basic technologies. The digital divide is real, and it widens each day the gap between rich and poor, between connected nations and forgotten regions.
This is why Leo XIV insists on the necessity of appropriate legal frameworks, both local and international, to govern the development of AI. Laws that are not based on profitability or performance, but on the human person as the center and ultimate goal of all progress.
While artificial intelligence can, as the Pope says, simulate certain forms of human reasoning or execute tasks with speed, it will never have the capacity for moral discernment, nor to love, nor to enter into real relationship.
"What artificial intelligence will never be able to imitate is the capacity to discern good from evil, to forge true relationships, to serve freely, and to love."
The Pope cites Saint Augustine, evoking the ultimate goal that every human society should pursue: "tranquillitas ordinis," that peace founded on just order. It is toward this true peace, anchored in the moral order, that all technical development must tend.
From the very beginning of his pontificate, during his very first meeting with the cardinals last May 10th, Leo XIV had already described artificial intelligence as a new industrial revolution, but also a source of major challenges for human dignity, justice, and work. In other words, a machine is never neutral. And the more powerful it is, the more it demands profound responsibility from those who control it.
In summary, Pope Leo XIV draws a clear line: it is not artificial intelligence that will save or destroy the world, it is humanity. Everything will depend on our capacity to remain vigilant, to discern with integrity, and to place respect for the human person at the heart of all progress.
At a time when some dream of transhumanism, brain-machine fusion, or fully automated societies, the voice of the Church continues to remind us that man is not a machine, and must never be treated as such.