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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Magnifica Humanitas: Human Dignity, Technology, and the International Order

Pope Leo XIV signing the Magnifica Humanitas Encyclical / Vatican News

In May 2025, Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas. In a lengthy, thoughtfully constructed, insightful document, the Pope addresses a broad range of questions from the nature of human personality to artificial intelligence to peaceful international order. It emphasizes the role of human dignity as an ultimate ethical principle for navigating the challenges and leveraging the opportunities that our rapidly changing world holds for humanity. It warns against both unlimited belief in technological progress and Luddism-style rejection of it. This blog series has united theologians, constitutional theorists, political scholars, software business managers, and human rights lawyers to reflect on this powerful document and on the ethical approaches and solutions it advocates to make our use of technology safer and more dignified, and the world more just, equal, and peaceful.

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Infinite, Finite, and Definite Dignity: Reflections on the Catholic Church’s Dignitas Infinita

Vatican, Rome – Conciliazione street

In April 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Holy See’s institution responsible for the religious discipline of the Catholic Church) published the declaration Dignitas Infinita. The document contributes to the theological argumentation of human dignity as an ontological feature of every human being and clarifies the teachings of the Catholic Church on dignity-related issues, including those traditionally the subject of the Holy See’s focus (such as family ethics, poverty, and war) and those that are virtually new (such as human dignity and digital technologies).

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