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"path": "/post/magnificent-humanity-misplaced-foundation/",
"publishedAt": "2026-06-07T00:00:00.000Z",
"site": "https://gidley.co.uk",
"tags": [
"Magnifica Humanitas"
],
"textContent": "Pope Leo XIV published Magnifica Humanitas on 15 May 2026 — the first papal encyclical centred on artificial intelligence. I am curious what Catholic social teaching would make of AI.\n\nThe encyclical’s account of why AI is dangerous — that we are building systems that will reshape human society without adequately thinking through what we owe each other — seems largely right to me. The place I find myself uncertain is the foundation: the doctrine that humans possess an inherent, infinite, ontological dignity that places us in a special category above any mind we might create. But when we’re all — religious and secular alike — trying to work out what we owe minds that don’t yet exist but look likely in a few years. I’m not sure ‘humanity is inherently special’ holds up as an argument beyond faith.",
"title": "Magnificent Humanity, Misplaced Foundation"
}