In May, Pope Leo released the first encyclical letter, a teaching document, which focused entirely on artificial intelligence. The first ever American head of the Catholic Church argued that as a new industrial revolution powered by ever-growing AI loomed into view it was vital to apply centuries-old Catholic Social Teaching to our current age. University of Oxford theologian Sam Tranter, who researches AI and Christian ethics himself, was at the Vatican launch of the encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas’ and joins us today to talk through what Leo writes about AI. Is he a doomer or a booster? Does the Catholic Church now see AI as simply a neutral tool to be used for good or ill depending on the humans behind it, or a more malevolent and systemically suspect technology we should be wary of? And is anyone listening to what a celibate Christian cleric in his 70s is saying about ChatGPT and Claude – will the encyclical actually affect the development of AI and how it is embedded in our societies and economies?
Read Magnifica humanitas here
Find out more about Sam’s research at the McDonald Centre at the University of Oxford here
In each episode of Matters of Life and Death, brought to you by Premier Unbelievable?, John Wyatt and his son Tim discuss issues in healthcare, ethics, technology, science, faith and more. John is a doctor, professor of ethics, and writer and speaker on many of these topics, while Tim is a religion and social affairs journalist. We talk about how Christians can better engage with a particular question of life, death or something else in between.
In May, Pope Leo released the first encyclical letter, a teaching document, which focused entirely on artificial intelligence. The first ever American head of the Catholic Church argued that as a new industrial revolution powered by ever-growing AI loomed into view it was vital to apply centuries-old Catholic Social Teaching to our current age. University of Oxford theologian Sam Tranter, who researches AI and Christian ethics himself, was at the Vatican launch of the encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas’ and joins us today to talk through what Leo writes about AI. Is he a doomer or a booster? Does the Catholic Church now see AI as simply a neutral tool to be used for good or ill depending on the humans behind it, or a more malevolent and systemically suspect technology we should be wary of? And is anyone listening to what a celibate Christian cleric in his 70s is saying about ChatGPT and Claude – will the encyclical actually affect the development of AI and how it is embedded in our societies and economies?
Read Magnifica humanitas here – https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
Find out more about Sam’s research at the McDonald Centre at the University of Oxford here – https://mcdonaldcentre.web.ox.ac.uk/political-theology-emerging-technologies-and-common-life#tab-5740011
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