Inside Magnifica Humanitas: Pope Leo XIV's Radical Vision for AI, Labor, and Peace

On May 25, 2026, Pope Leo XIV released his first papal encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, a sweeping 42,300-word document that establishes the Vatican's most forceful stance yet on artificial intelligence . Signed on the 135th anniversary of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, the encyclical positions AI not as a neutral tool but as a spiritual and social crossroads—one that will either elevate human dignity or entrench new forms of subjugation . Leo XIV frames the entire AI project in explicitly theological terms, opening with a stark warning that humanity faces "a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together" .

But beyond the biblical imagery, the document makes three specific, provocative interventions: it draws a direct line from AI systems to modern slavery, it forcefully declares the death of just war theory, and it maps out a chain of accountability that starts in Silicon Valley boardrooms and ends in the halls of government.

AI as an engine of modern slavery

Magnifica Humanitas does not treat AI-driven exploitation as a metaphor or a distant risk. It classifies specific contemporary practices as actual forms of slavery. The encyclical names "digital wage slavery" and algorithmic workplace surveillance that strips workers of their agency and dignity as manifestations of a deeper dehumanization .

This is not rhetorical inflation. By invoking the language of slavery, Leo XIV places gig-economy platforms, algorithmically managed warehouses, and exploitative content-moderation supply chains within a moral framework the Church has historically reserved for the gravest violations of human personhood. The encyclical describes AI-driven exploitation as an "anti-human vision" that must be met with "shared standards of social justice"—a direct call for binding norms rather than voluntary ethics pledges .

The pope's argument rests on a premise that runs throughout the document: AI is not morally neutral, and its design choices encode values that either honor or degrade the human person . A system optimized solely for efficiency and profit, he warns, will inevitably treat workers as disposable inputs rather than bearers of inherent dignity.

The death of just war theory

Perhaps the most startling section of Magnifica Humanitas is its treatment of war. The encyclical does not merely caution against autonomous weapons or advocate for meaningful human control—positions previous Vatican statements have taken. It goes further, declaring that the entire framework of just war theory has been rendered obsolete by the capabilities of artificial intelligence .

"The 'just war' theory which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated," Leo XIV writes . The text calls for a "moral revolution" that moves beyond just war doctrine entirely, insisting that "there can be no just war in the age of artificial intelligence" .

The reasoning is both practical and theological. On the practical side, AI-driven weapons systems reduce human control to a point where traditional criteria for just war—proportionality, discrimination between combatants and civilians, legitimate authority—become impossible to satisfy. On the theological side, the encyclical argues that just war theory has historically been stretched to legitimize conflicts that serve power rather than justice, and that AI threatens to accelerate this distortion beyond recognition.

In place of just war thinking, Leo XIV advocates for "responsible innovation" and a proactive commitment to peacebuilding—a shift from managing the conditions of acceptable violence to preventing the systems that make violence autonomous and inevitable .

The responsibility of power: Big Tech and governments

Throughout Magnifica Humanitas, Leo XIV refuses to let the architects of AI off the hook. The encyclical places primary moral responsibility on "big tech" corporations and governments, framing their decisions in stark, existential terms .

He calls on AI developers and the societies that regulate them to implement "shared standards of social justice" that ensure AI respects human dignity and serves the common good . This is not a suggestion for internal ethics boards or voluntary guidelines. The language implies enforceable norms, developed and applied across national boundaries, that constrain what AI can be built and how it can be deployed.

The pope warns that without such standards, the decisions made by a handful of powerful institutions will determine whether AI creates "a global caste system"—a world where technological capability concentrates wealth and power while pushing vast populations into precarity . He explicitly tells these actors that they must "choose life or death for humanity," a formulation that leaves no room for technocratic neutrality .

A test of humanity, not just technology

Magnifica Humanitas is not a wholesale rejection of artificial intelligence. The encyclical acknowledges AI as "a valuable tool" with genuine potential . But its core argument is that potential can only be realized if humanity first answers a prior question: what kind of future do we want to build, and who gets to decide?

Leo XIV's answer is that a future built without God—without a transcendent anchor for human dignity, without limits on what can be optimized and exploited—will inevitably become a new Babel . The encyclical is a demand that technology serve humanity rather than reshape it, and a warning that ignoring that demand carries consequences the Church now considers as grave as any it has ever addressed.