Catholic thinkers and technology experts convened at the New York Encounter to discuss applying Catholic social teaching to the promises and perils of artificial intelligence. The discussion emphasized Pope Leo XIV's encouragement to use AI responsibly, ensuring it aids human growth rather than replacing human intelligence or judgment. Panelists included Davide Bolchini from Indiana University, Chuck Rossi from Meta, and Paul Scherz from the University of Notre Dame. Chuck Rossi detailed how AI systems at Meta are used to rapidly filter billions of pieces of online content hourly to safeguard users from harmful material.
20 days ago
Catholic thinkers and tech experts discussed AI's promise and perils through the lens of Catholic social teaching at the New York Encounter on February 14, 2026.1 2 3
The panel, moderated by Davide Bolchini of Indiana University, drew several hundred attendees to the three-day cultural conference in New York City.1 2 3
Bolchini opened by citing Pope Leo XIV's encouragement to use AI responsibly, helping human growth without substituting human intelligence or judgment.1 2 3
He emphasized AI should work "with us," preserving authentic wonder and moral discernment.1 2 3
Chuck Rossi, a Meta engineer developing AI content moderation, highlighted AI's role in scanning 2.5 billion online content pieces hourly to filter harm like nudity, bullying, and violence.1 2 3
This protects users and spares human moderators from disturbing material, with Meta excelling despite challenges.1 2 3
Paul Scherz acknowledged AI advances in medicine and mundane tasks like billing.1 2 3
Scherz warned AI encroaches on intrinsically human realms, like relationships, irreplaceable by machines per Martin Buber's "I/thou" connection.1 2 3
He cited Catholic apps using AI bots for catechesis as an example of this intrusion.1 2 3
Excessive AI use risks eroding interpersonal skills, patience, and virtue in encounters, Scherz argued.1 2 3
Professionally, it leads to "de-skilling," as seen in complacent doctors or error-prone pilots over-relying on automation.1 2 3
Louis Kim, ex-Hewlett-Packard AI executive now studying theology, urged humility, noting predictions of AI's impact often reflect current paradigms.1 2 3
New skills will emerge to control AI, but moral formation remains key to improving human relationships amid existing flaws like superficial interactions.1 2 3
Evaluate Catholic social teaching’s guidance on responsible AI use
Catholic social teaching (CST) offers a robust framework for responsible AI use, emphasizing human dignity, the common good, solidarity, and ethical discernment amid technological innovation. Rooted in perennial truths yet adaptable to new realities, CST views AI not as an end in itself but as a tool that must serve the human person, foster fraternity, and avoid dehumanizing effects. Recent papal messages from Pope Leo XIV provide direct guidance, while foundational principles from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church and Fratelli Tutti underscore the need for AI to prioritize justice, equity, and authentic relationships over mere efficiency or profit.
CST portrays the Church's social doctrine as a dynamic "work site," perpetually renewed by Gospel principles applied to evolving circumstances like the AI-driven digital revolution. Faith acts as a "leaven of innovation and creativity," urging the Church to engage technology openly while ensuring it advances justice and peace. This approach recognizes AI's transformative potential—enhancing education, healthcare, work, and communication—but insists on "responsibility and discernment" to direct it toward the common good.
The Compendium appreciates market mechanisms, including those powering AI development, for their efficiency in resource allocation and innovation. A competitive market can reward entrepreneurship and respond to needs, yet it must moderate excesses and promote justice, preventing AI from exacerbating inequalities. Similarly, private property in AI technologies (e.g., data, algorithms) is legitimate only if subordinated to the universal destination of goods and placed at the service of human work, not hoarded to impede others' progress. Possession becomes illicit if it exploits or speculates without expanding societal wealth.
At CST's heart lies the inviolable dignity of the human person, willed by God, which AI must never undermine. Pope Leo XIV stresses that while AI excels in speed and simulation, it "cannot replicate moral discernment or the ability to form genuine relationships." In medicine, for instance, AI aids diagnosis and care but must enhance, not replace, human relationships between providers and patients, preserving the "ontological dignity" of the vulnerable. Healthcare professionals—and by extension, AI developers and users—bear a vocation to guard life, demanding "nobility" proportional to fragility.
The common good demands AI governance centered on the person, transcending utility or efficiency toward "tranquillitas ordinis"—the tranquility of order fostering peaceful societies. Globalization via AI-enabled trade and communication offers opportunities but risks widening rich-poor gaps without ethical criteria like equity and attention to the needy. "The poor nations remain ever poor while the rich ones become still richer" absent such orientation.
Solidarity, highlighting humanity's social nature and interdependence, is pivotal for AI ethics. Rapid communication technologies, amplified by AI, enable global bonds but expose stark inequalities fueled by exploitation. CST calls for "equally intense efforts on the ethical-social plane" to counter global injustice. Fratelli Tutti echoes this, urging AI to build fraternity by serving vulnerability: "Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people."
In a globalized world, AI should inspire solidarity, ensuring dignified lives through encounter, not isolation. Media and internet offer "immense possibilities for encounter," but must guide toward truth, service, and the underprivileged, rejecting designs that "exploit our weaknesses."
Pope Leo XIV's 2025 messages mark CST's most explicit AI guidance. At the AI for Good Summit, he frames humanity "at a crossroads," urging "ethical clarity and... coordinated local and global governance of AI" rooted in dignity and freedoms. Responsibility extends from developers to users, requiring frameworks upholding human values over algorithmic autonomy.
In his address to the Pontifical Academy for Life on "AI and Medicine," Leo XIV warns of the digital revolution's pervasiveness, rivaling the Industrial Revolution, which risks dehumanizing us by treating machines as interlocutors and obscuring "the faces of the people around us." Technology's benefits are real, but history cautions against its antihuman misuse; true progress prioritizes dignity and common good. AI in fragile contexts demands irreplaceable human closeness, never reducing care to problem-solving.
Fratelli Tutti critiques digital pitfalls relevant to AI: information floods yield no wisdom, fostering horizontal data accumulation over penetrating truth. Platforms enable "shameless aggression," fake news, and echo chambers via economic interests manipulating consciences. Yet, with charity's light—merging reason, faith, and science—AI can concretely aid development. Saint Francis's fraternal love models openness beyond barriers, which AI should facilitate.
CST guides responsible AI by integrating principles: subsidiarity empowers local ethical oversight; participation ensures broad involvement; preferential option for the poor checks biases. Developers must embed moral discernment; regulators enforce human-centered standards; users exercise conscience. Controversies—like AI autonomy or bias—demand nuanced discernment, prioritizing recent teachings where general principles apply.
In summary, CST endorses AI's promise while mandating its alignment with dignity, solidarity, and common good. By fostering ethical frameworks and human relationships, AI becomes a path to fraternity, not division.