Disarming AI: Human Rights on Shifting Ground

Viktor Poletko (PhD, KU Leuven) is a political theorist and head of business unit at an international software consultancy.

This post is a part of our series on Magnifica Humanitas.

The idea that this Pope would kick off the contribution on social ethics was pretty obvious. Given the papal name he chose for himself, the theme of his first encyclical was easy to guess. But while Pope Leo XIII famously addressed the societal and economic effects of the Industrial Revolution, Leo XIV turned his attention to an allegedly overhyped topic of the AI revolution.

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The Holy See Noticed What Many Prefer to Be Blind to: Magnificent Humanity vs. Artificial Intelligence

Yulia Razmetaeva is a researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University (Sweden) and head of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Digital Technologies at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine).

This post is a part of our series on Magnifica Humanitas.

On 25 May 2026, the first Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence” was released. Consisting of 42,088 words in English, the document offers a holistic, profound, and bold look at the consequences of technocratic dominance, the digital revolution whose fruits are enjoyed by a few, and the asymmetric deployment and use of technologies, especially artificial intelligence. The letter was met with an immediate wave of enthusiastic praise and memes in both traditional and social media, since it clearly outlined concerns about technologies, challenges for humanity, and ways to protect the human person in the age of AI.

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Greek Tragedy: Gideon Sapir on Why He Is Now Critical of the Israeli Supreme Court’s Decisions on Religious Exemption from Military Service

In Rubinstein v. The Minister of Defense (1998) and several subsequent cases, the Israeli Supreme Court invalidated executive branch administrative acts and Knesset laws granting exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva students. In its reasoning, the Supreme Court mainly referred to separation-of-power and equality issues. While he initially supported some of these decisions, Gideon Sapir (Bar-Ilan University) eventually changed his opinion for several reasons explained in this video.

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