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Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, arrives at a moment of profound uncertainty about the future of human work and human purpose. The document is formally rooted in Catholic social teaching, but its central questions belong to everyone: What does it mean to live a meaningful life in an age of intelligent machines? What responsibilities do societies have to workers displaced by technology? And how do we ensure that innovation strengthens our magnificent humanity instead of diminishing it?
The Pope is right to frame artificial intelligence as more than a technical challenge: At its core, it’s a moral one.
For too long, our conversations about AI have been dominated by efficiency, productivity, and competition. We are told that faster systems, lower labor costs, and automated decision-making represent inevitable progress. But Pope Leo XIV reminds us that the true measure of any economy is not how quickly it produces, but whether it helps people flourish.
That distinction matters enormously. Work is much more than simply a mechanism for generating income. Human work has always been tied to identity, dignity, contribution, and belonging. Through work, people develop skills, build relationships, support families, and discover meaning in serving something larger than themselves. A healthy society recognizes that employment goes beyond transactional; it is profoundly human.
This is why the Pope’s warning about unchecked automation deserves careful attention. He argues that AI must remain a tool that supports human beings rather than replaces them wholesale, particularly when decisions are driven primarily by profit and concentration of power.
Centering humanity in a changing world of work
We have seen versions of this story before.
During the Industrial Revolution, societies faced wrenching transitions that produced both extraordinary prosperity and extraordinary suffering. Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, on capital and labor, challenged leaders to recognize that workers were not expendable inputs in an economic machine.
In the 20th century, Pope John Paul II’s treatise on human work, Laborum Exercens, emphasized the centrality of humanity when it comes to work, noting that “through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfilment as a human being, and indeed, in a sense, becomes more a human being.”
Today, Pope Leo XIV is extending these same human-focused, moral arguments into the digital age.
The stakes may be even higher now because AI increasingly reaches into cognitive work, creative work, and decision-making itself. Entire professions may be reshaped in ways we barely understand. The temptation will be to evaluate these changes solely through the lens of shareholder value or national competitiveness.
That would be a profound mistake.
Many worry that AI can replace human labor. In many cases, it clearly can. The real question is whether societies will resist the pull to purely maximize efficiency and instead choose to organize technology around human flourishing.
A future in which millions of people feel economically unnecessary is not merely an economic problem. It is a civic, cultural, and spiritual crisis. When people lose opportunities to contribute meaningfully, communities weaken. Trust erodes. Alienation deepens. Democracies themselves become more fragile.
This is why carefully crafted regulation matters so much. The Pope’s call for stronger oversight of AI supports innovation while being emphatically pro-human. Sensible regulation is how societies establish boundaries that expand the common good while still encouraging creativity and entrepreneurship. We use regulation to advance the well-being of young people and to protect those who are vulnerable. And we regulate industries such as food safety, aviation, banking, and pharmaceuticals because we understand that powerful systems require accountability.
AI deserves the same seriousness.
Redefine the success of AI around people, not pure efficiency
Much as we’ve seen in education, thoughtful regulation should insist on transparency in high-stakes decisions. It should protect workers from reckless displacement. It should require accountability when algorithms reinforce discrimination or misinformation. And it should prevent excessive concentrations of technological power that undermine democratic institutions.
At the same time, regulation alone is not enough. We also need a broader cultural commitment to redefining success in the AI era. If the sole purpose of innovation is eliminating labor costs, then we will create technologies that steadily devalue human beings. But if innovation is guided by the goal of expanding human capability, deepening learning, improving health, strengthening communities, and creating new avenues for contribution, then AI can become a remarkable force for good.
That choice remains ours.
I am ultimately optimistic about human potential because history shows that people continually learn, adapt, create, and reinvent. That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Technological progress without moral leadership can widen inequality, weaken institutions, and erode meaning itself.
The Pope’s encyclical is therefore valuable because it asks the right first question: What kind of humanity are we trying to build?
That is the question policymakers, business leaders, educators, technologists, and citizens must answer together.
The future of AI should not be determined only by what machines can do. It should be determined by what human beings need in order to live lives of dignity, purpose, connection, and meaning.
Read more: Will AI Replace College? Not So Fast.
Read more: Democracy Vs. Technocracy: Why AI Needs A Moral Operating System
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