Pope Leo XIV, on Monday May 25, 2026, published his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, or Magnificent Humanity. The pope argued that “AI [artificial intelligence] can be a valuable tool”; however, the technology “tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise, and access to data.” Without adequate oversight and transparency, he warned, “Those who control AI will impose their own moral vision, which will become the invisible infrastructure of these systems.”

Let us first de-construct what the Pope Leo XIV is talking about. The specific technology is a branch of artificial intelligence called generative AI (GenAI). This enables users to quickly generate new content based on a variety of inputs. Inputs and outputs to these models can include text, images, sounds, animation, 3-D models, or other types of data. These include
ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot.

Because of the generalised nature of these models, they have no boundaries, which is what worries most people working on these systems. The possible applications are restricted only by your imagination. The technology therefore impacts a wide range of professions — health care, education, religion, creative industry, business and finance, legal, computing, architecture and engineering, among others. The expectations are that the technology will automate or eliminate some of jobs in these professions and others would augment — coexist with humans. We estimate that approximately 60,000 could be eliminated in the Jamaican labour force.

The tech industry proposes that people who no longer have a job the Government should pay a universal basic income — regular unconditional payments to all adult citizens to support economic stability and alleviate poverty. The pope’s view runs counter to the tech industry. He wrote that, “The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.” He made practical recommendations that governments should consider, including protection and retraining for workers whose jobs are threatened, and education to help students think critically about the technology.

It should be noted that China’s approach to GenAI is different from the West. A Chinese court recently ruled in a case in which a tech company laid off a worker after replacing him with AI software: “The development of artificial intelligence technology should be applied to liberating labour, promoting employment, and improving people’s livelihood.”

The pope spoke about those who control AI and was polite not to name anyone. However, he implicitly referred to Sam Altman (OpenAI); Dario Amodei (Anthropic); Bill Gates (Microsoft); Demis Hassabis (DeepMind); Elon Musk (xAI); Peter Thiel (DeepMind); Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and their peers. These are the richest men in the world. Oligarch status does not adequately describe their wealth. To put their wealth in perspective: The World Inequality Report 2026 indicates that globally wealth is extremely concentrated and at an all-time high. The top 10 per cent own three-quarters of global wealth, while the bottom half holds only two per cent.

In the US, wealth is even more concentrated. Data from the Federal Reserve indicate that, collectively, the wealthiest one per cent held about US$55 trillion in assets in the third quarter of 2025 — roughly equal to the wealth held by the bottom 90 per cent of Americans combined. Zeroing in on the tech sector, particularly AI, and software companies account for roughly one-third of the total value of the S&P 500 — approximately US$21 trillion. These tech oligarchs exert disproportionate political influence through campaign finance and media ownership, making a farce of the democratic principle of equal representation.

What is the “moral vision” to which the pope refers. Leading technology companies are hyper-actively trying to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). These are GenAI systems which would have general, human-level (or beyond) ability to learn, reason, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks and domains. The idea is that human beings would no longer be the exclusive centre of intelligence but would co-exist with AI — a post-human society. The moral vision is to use current and upcoming technologies to bring about societal change. The vision is that society would be transformed based on three messianic-type pillars:

1) Super longevity: The current life cycle of birth, development, aging, and death can be changed by developing technologies to combat ageing, so people can live for as long as you want.

2) Super intelligence: A future in which there is a symbiotic relationship with AI, or integrating ourselves with AI, propelling the human race into period of AGI.

3) Super well being: The idea is to phase out suffering by gene modification to avoid, depression, anger, jealously, and other negative states — no sadness, only happiness.

This moral vision is messianic in nature and completely divergent to orthodoxy relating to society, economics, and religion. Some in the industry have remarked that the race for AGI to make god and be gods. Pope Leo XIV diplomatically didn’t mention the explicit threat of GenAI to religious orthodoxy; however, the technology is already encroaching with popular chatbots like Text With Jesus and bible.ai which offers spiritual guidance to users who are looking to connect with a higher power. Premium users of Text With Jesus can also converse with Satan.

It is important to note that GenAI platforms are owned by a few major technology companies and so it is the cloud infrastructure that provides the computational power. These platforms have a culture embedded in the software based on the values, choices, and assumptions of the creators. Pope Leo’s concern is that just a small group is making these decisions that will affect the entire world. The future envisioned the purveyors of AGI is not democratic, but of oligarchs with god-like powers controlling legacy media, social media, social and economic conditions, armies — as they continue to incorporate AI.

Throughout this article I have been putting words in Pope Leo XIV mouth. So let me close with his words: “Work is more than a way of earning income, but a requirement for the human condition a normal path towards maturity, development and personal fulfilment.” He called for “the protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual”.

Pope Leo XIV’s message should not be ignored by governments or the general public.

Paul Golding

Paul Golding, DBA, is a professor of management information systems at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or pgolding@utech.edu.jm.