When the Papal Conclave begins this week, all discussion will turn to how the incoming Pope will compare to Pope Francis, who passed away last month. While many conservatives are hoping that the next leader of the Catholic Church will adhere to a more traditional view of church doctrine, one area where Francis’s leadership is well worth following is on digital ethics.
This column relies on insights from several theologians, scientists, and religious commentators, all of whom observed Francis’s pontificate and participated in Vatican events. Nearly all independently pointed to digital ethics, resulting from a unique effort to develop guidance for navigating new technologies as a Christian, as Francis’s enduring legacy.
At Francis’s funeral mass, Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re nodded to this by noting that the late pope was “attentive to the signs of the times.”
Other theologians I spoke to said that Francis recognized how the technological world profoundly impacted the most sacred aspects of life, by which God distinguishes Mankind from the rest of creation.
For instance, on artificial intelligence (AI), Francis told world leaders at last year’s G7 summit in Italy that the technology was “not morally neutral.” Directing their attention to the human heart, Francis stressed that man deserves to be put first before machines and technology, including AI.
Francis observed parallels in Mankind’s interaction with God and with AI, particularly language models like Chat GPT. Like God, AI aspires to empower Man to make decisions. But unlike God, AI is not infinite – it is a creation of Mankind, and therefore limited by our biases and inherent flaws and weaknesses.
Francis saw how, if left uncontrolled, AI could have a profoundly detrimental effect on the human character. If people look to AI as a source of truth and guidance to fill a void that only God can fill, they will be left forever wanting. This raised Francis’s concern that AI could lead people to become victims of manipulation, as AI is a tool that is easy to abuse.
“We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs; human dignity depends on it,” Francis said at the G7 summit.
Despite these clear warnings, Francis was not opposed to new technologies in principle. As one person I spoke with put it to me, “his attitude of humility and mercy guided him not to make hastened conclusions,” but to search “for reasonable solutions while attentively listening to specialists, esteeming their expertise, and being ready to learn.”
In total, I identified 140 homilies and addresses, along with five official documents – two of which are encyclicals – in which Francis discusses digital technology or AI. He also made more than a dozen statements about AI during interviews.
One of his unique initiatives was a “Rome Call For AI Ethics,” an appeal to create a movement comprising public and private institutions “to set a course for developing and using technologies.” Francis defined the criteria for what he called “algor-ethic,” or ethical algorithms and AI policy: transparency, impartiality, reliability, and, above all, responsibility.
Prominent technology companies on the cutting edge of AI, including Microsoft, IBM, CISCO, healthcare providers, and machine learning firms, recognized Pope Francis’s efforts, which Microsoft President Brad Smith described as highlighting “the importance of keeping humans at the center of AI.”
In the last document Francis approved, “Antiqua et Nova,” a 13,000-word note on human and artificial intelligence, he provided an ethical criterion for developers and users to assess the morality of emerging technology, including AI. In that document, he urges a commitment to ensuring that new technology “supports and promotes” the dignity of every person and the fullness of human vocation.
Indeed, such was the intent. For Pope Francis, the dignity of the human person was always a yardstick in his pastoral work. In 2005, then-Cardinal Bergoglio, commemorating the late Pope John Paul II, stated in an interview with this author that he thanked God for “the gift of this unique pontificate.”
“Pope John Paul II strived to reassert Christian values into a directionless world by proclaiming the mercy of God and the dignity of humanity,” he said.
The Pope himself understood first-hand how AI may undermine people’s dignity after “deep fake” photos of him in a puffer jacket began making the rounds online in 2023 – one of the first such scandals. The fake image was accepted as authentic and went viral, provoking resentment, mockery, and even disdain of the “stylish Pope.”
As the Church prepares to elect its next shepherd, it should carry forward Pope Francis’s call for moral clarity in the digital age – not as a departure from tradition, but as a profound expression of it. In elevating human dignity above machine logic, Francis gave the Church a prophetic compass. The next pope would do well to keep that compass in hand as he leads humanity through uncharted technological terrain.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
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