Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology
It’s a long way from Silicon Valley to the Vatican, but the journey may be enlightening. Recently, Pope Leo XIV addressed a conference on artificial intelligence in Rome, where he emphasized the need for deeper consideration of the “ethical and spiritual weight” of new technologies. The pontiff said, “Every design choice expresses a vision of humanity,” and called upon technologists “to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work — to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity and a genuine reverence for life.”
Some tech-wizards responded to this pontificating (pun intended) with a disdainful shrug. Engineers and entrepreneurs are focused on building cool stuff, and some don’t think it is their responsibility to worry about ethics or spirituality.
A sophisticated way of saying this is to claim that technology is morally neutral or “value-free.” A version of this idea is found in the motto, “guns don’t kill people, people do.” Defenders of this approach to technology point out that tools do not have a fixed meaning or purpose. Rockets and airplanes can kill people, or we can use them for peaceful purposes. Moral judgment, from this perspective, should focus on what people do with their tools — not on the tools themselves.
A different conception views tools as “value-laden.” From this perspective, technological innovation expresses some set of values. Machines reflect the values of their creators — individuals who build them, after all, with some purpose or function in mind. Guns are made for killing, as are nuclear weapons.
The value-laden conception of technology suggests that new technologies reflect or embody the web of cultural and economic values that supports their creation. New technologies also create new forms of culture, as we are witnessing in the era of social media and artificial intelligence.
Some critics of technology reject the whole modern world. So-called “primitivists” worry that we are stuck in a technology-driven doom loop involving fossil fuels, nuclear weapons, advanced biotech and super-intelligent machines. In response, “techno-optimists” argue that technological development has allowed humanity to thrive in previously unimagined ways.
Furthermore, advocates of technological “acceleration” suggest that the solution to technological problems is more advanced technology — they hope that smarter machines will solve the problems created by the previous generation of tools.
We have just scratched the surface here with regard to the complex issues discussed in the philosophy of technology. This begins with the insight that human beings are tool-using animals. Tools extend and amplify our operational power, and they can also either enhance or undermine who we are and what we care about.
Whether we are enhancing or undermining our humanity ought to be the focus of moral reflection on technology.
This is a crucial question in the AI-era. The AI-revolution should lead us to ask fundamental questions about the ethical and spiritual side of technological development. AI is already changing how we think about intellectual work, such as teaching and learning. Human beings are already interacting with artificial systems that provide medical, legal, psychological and even spiritual advice. Are we prepared for all of this morally, culturally and spiritually?
Our tools influence how we understand ourselves and the world. Before telescopes and microscopes, we had no idea of the vastness of the cosmos or the wonders of cellular life. Before the printing press, only elites had access to written knowledge. And the cyber-era has changed how we think about friendship, information and entertainment.
The idea of value-free technology ignores all this. It seems fairly obvious that tools express and influence what we value. That’s why we must employ critical moral judgment — what the pope called “moral discernment,” as we develop new technologies. At the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence, we need a corresponding new dawn of critical moral judgment.
Now is the time for philosophers, theologians and ordinary citizens to think deeply about the philosophy of technology and the values expressed or embodied in our tools. It will be exciting to see what the wizards of Silicon Valley will come up with next. But wizardry without wisdom is dangerous.
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