After reading the National Catholic Register’s, “The Rise of the Catholic Anti-AI Movement,” I thought I would introduce an important distinction to clarify statements made in this rather balanced article.
I should state at the outset that the dangers mentioned by the Catholic anti AI spokespeople should be taken seriously. There are inherent dangers with chatbots that simulate human beings, and falsely portray personal human traits such as sympathy, empathy, care, friendship, and morality. These human activities and intrasubjective states cannot be reduced to physical processes and structures, and so AI will never be able to genuinely produce them as well as self-consciousness, abstract intellection, transcendental and spiritual awareness, and free actions. AI will never be human.
Beyond the problem of inciting young and old alike to treat non-human, non-transcendent, and non-moral “simulation machines” as human beings, AI’s false portrayal of human intersubjectivity can even become an encourager for immoral and suicidal behavior. Beyond this there are the other dangers mentioned by Pope Leo XIV in Magnifica Humanitas, such as autonomous AI weaponry, student indolence, AI oligarchies, privacy concerns, destructive effects on education, and other problems.
Notwithstanding these significant challenges, generative AI is not intrinsically evil (such as, abortion, fetal experimentation, and physician assisted suicide), because the very use of generative AI does not always directly cause unjust irreparable harm or the negation of human dignity. Yes–some uses of generative AI can cause irreparable harm, but by no means do all uses of AI cause such harm and evil. This means that Catholics are free to use generative AI so long as they prudentially exercise caution and restraint for themselves and their children about the uses of AI that can be evil or harmful. The Catholic Church has used this ethical distinction and method in dozens of issues from gun control to genetic engineering (many of which Pope Leo mentions at the beginning of Magnifica Humanitas).
So what are some of the licit and good uses of AI? Beyond Pope Leo’s recognition of AI as a “valuable tool” (e.g., par #100), there are many uses of AI already positively affecting the worlds of science, technology, business, communications, and much more. AI is generating new alloys and procedures for new sources of clean and abundant energy (such as fusion), sources of potable water from the atmosphere and desalinization, sources of food from gene editing and hydroponic farming, and new satellite technologies that will significantly improve communications. Indeed AI is making scientific and technological breakthroughs that would have previously taken 100x to 1000x longer to unveil. Additionally, generative AI can now do lengthy, tedious tasks quickly that most people would find boring and undignified. Use of AI in business is increasing productivity and efficiency which will bring down the cost of products and services while increasing volume.
I don’t mean to create a Pollyanna scenario for AI in the future–far from it. Nevertheless, there is a legitimate good use of AI, and many of us, perforce, will have to use it to be qualified in the new AI-enhanced world of science, technology, communications, and business. As we enter into this new world we will have to be ethically cautious and vigilant, as Pope Leo has stressed, to assure that the world does not become darker and less humane than it already is.
Pope Leo has provided excellent initial suggestions for how to prevent harmful systemic and personal uses of AI such as:
- Robust legal frameworks and independent oversight so that tech monopolies and dominant private actors do not unilaterally dictate societal values.
- Prohibit delegating irreversible life-and-death decisions, as in autonomous weaponry, to computer algorithms.
- Insist that automation and AI must not treat human workers as disposable, or subordinate human dignity to maximum system optimization.
- Protect children and the vulnerable from fake, hyper-sexualized, or manipulated online content that distorts human desire and erodes democratic trust.
Catholic AI developers and ethicists can also help meet the challenges of AI on more granular levels, such as:
- Offering seminars and tailored advice for schools, parishes, businesses, and individuals on how to properly use AI and avoid harmful AI practices.
- Create Catholic AIs, such as MagisAI (see link below), that do not pretend to be human beings while advancing the cause of Catholic education and evangelization, such as giving evidence and answering secular criticisms about God, Jesus, life after death, the Catholic Church, the Holy Eucharist, Mary, Catholic morality, Catholic scripture interpretation, Catholic spiritual life, and much more.
These initiatives will have to be developed much further as we proceed into an ever-increasing AI-enhanced world.
In my view, Pope Leo and the Catholic Church have once again struck the right balance on the ethical evaluation and use of this new transformative technology that will have significant positive and challenging effects in the world. Catholics may of course choose to avoid it completely, but should not call it “evil,” because it is not always unjustly irreparably harmful or negating of human dignity. Instead, I recommend that Catholics use AI wherever it will benefit society, economy, education, culture, and Catholic evangelization, and exercise leadership on how to avoid unjust and harmful uses of AI not only for themselves and their families, but also for society and culture.
Here is the link to download MagisAI free of charge: https://www.magiscenter.com/magisai
