Magnifica Humanitas: AI and the fight to remain human

By Herman M. Lagon

Somewhere between AI-generated essays, endless scrolling, and the growing pressure to always be productive, Pope Leo XIV released an encyclical that feels surprisingly personal. Magnifica Humanitas—“On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence”—does not read like a panicked attack against technology. It reads more like a worried but hopeful conversation about humanity itself. Beneath the discussions on algorithms, digital power, automation, and artificial intelligence lies one painfully simple question: as machines become more intelligent, are human beings still becoming more humane?

Why that question is important is that it’s already emotionally cluttered in our modern lives. Everybody appears busy, accessible and always on-line, but many individuals continue to feel unheard. We talk faster now but not necessarily more kindly. Schools are still asking for performance and outputs, even if the pressure might often mean that a deeper understanding is lost. “Social media offers people platforms, but it also fans outrage, cruelty and exhaustion. Pope Leo XIV knows that technology is not the adversary. The encyclical clearly recognizes the betterment of life through science and innovation. The true risk arises when society becomes so concerned with efficiency that compassion progressively evaporates and individuals start considering each other as data, productivity or disposable labor, rather than dignified persons.

One of the strongest images in the document comes from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. The Pope compares today’s digital age to that ancient attempt to build something massive, powerful, and impressive without humility or regard for genuine human connection. In Babel, people wanted control, uniformity, and self-glorification. Eventually, communication collapsed, communities fractured, and confusion spread. Reading that section today feels strangely familiar. Humanity now communicates constantly through phones, platforms, and screens, yet people often understand each other less. Online discourse quickly turns tribal. Algorithms reward outrage faster than nuance. Humiliation trends more easily than wisdom. In many ways, modern society has mastered connection without necessarily mastering communion.

But the encyclical does not stop at warning. Pope Leo XIV offers another biblical image: the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Nehemiah. Jerusalem was rebuilt unlike Babel by listening, cooperation, humility and shared responsibility. Families, workers, leaders, priests, ordinary citizens all rebuilt the city, section by section. This is probably the moral core of Magnifica Humanitas. The future, the Pope says, should not be the sole property of billionaires, governments, programmers or huge technological businesses. It must also be part of teachers attempting to motivate challenging pupils, medics working through terrible shifts, parents raising children in the dark, workers worried about automation, and communities trying to stay human in an increasingly mechanical environment.

Perhaps the most moving part of the encyclical is its defense of human dignity. Pope Leo XIV repeatedly insists that a person’s worth does not come from wealth, intelligence, beauty, efficiency, popularity, or technological usefulness. Human dignity exists simply because every person is human. That sounds obvious until one looks honestly at modern society. Today’s culture constantly pressures people to become faster, smarter, more visible, more profitable, and endlessly productive. Even rest now feels guilty to many workers because exhaustion has quietly become normalized. The poor, elderly, unemployed, disabled, migrants, and emotionally struggling are often treated as inconveniences inside systems obsessed with performance. The Pope pushes back firmly against that mentality. A civilization that values people only when they are useful eventually forgets what civilization is for in the first place.

The encyclical also raises uncomfortable questions about power. Previous generations mostly feared governments controlling information. Today, giant technology companies shape public thinking, consumer behavior, communication, employment, even emotional reactions through algorithms most ordinary people barely understand. Pope Leo XIV warns that too much influence now rests in the hands of a small number of powerful private actors with limited accountability. One does not need to look far to see this happening. Misinformation spreads faster than careful analysis. Outrage attracts more engagement than compassion. Public humiliation often becomes entertainment. The Pope calls this a dangerous imbalance because societies slowly lose their ability to think, discern, and converse honestly when digital systems reward noise over truth.

As someone who recently spoke before teachers during the TechFactors Education 5.0 training in Cagayan de Oro, Laguna, and Baguio, I found parts of the encyclical painfully familiar. The exhaustion many educators feel today is not really about technology itself. Most teachers have already adapted. What drains them is trying to remain compassionate inside systems moving faster every year. Teachers have to conduct classes, encode reports, manage online platforms, limit AI use, troubleshoot tech issues, coach struggling learners and still somehow be emotionally available. In one workshop exercise, a number of teachers were candid about a hard truth: technology often makes classrooms more efficient but not always more humane. One teacher’s slick digital activity mistakenly benefitted pupils who had better Internet access—and nicer equipment. “You get some students who submit really good AI-assisted essays and then they can’t explain their thoughts orally after,” said one. Beneath all the education jargon, many teachers were quietly grappling with one question: Are schools still creating human beings or just creating outputs?

That concern echoes one of the strongest sections of Magnifica Humanitas. Pope Leo XIV criticizes a culture where humiliation, outrage, propaganda, and performative aggression increasingly dominate public conversations. Reading that section while scrolling through social media feels painfully accurate. Many now mistake cruelty for courage and virality for intelligence. The Pope instead calls for an “ecology of communication,” where listening, truth, restraint, and dialogue are protected. In an age where everyone wants to react immediately, choosing to slow down and truly listen may already be a form of wisdom.

The document also speaks directly to labor and inequality. Pope Leo XIV recognizes the benefits of technology but warns that automation could potentially lead to greater unemployment, isolation and exploitation if profit is put ahead of people. That warning is all too true in nations like ours where many workers are already struggling to live. For the Pontiff, real development is not about economic growth or technological innovation, but about whether regular people are living with dignity, stability and opportunity.

Magnifica Humanitas doesn’t succumb to fear or negativity, though. Pope Leo XIV does not advocate that man give up technology or withdraw from modern life. He merely begs that people not lose their humanity in the rush to keep up with rapid change. Vulnerability, sadness, reliance, aging, restriction are not weaknesses to be gotten rid of. The imperfections in humans lead to some of the deepest human experiences such as love, friendship, sacrifice and forgiveness.

Ultimately the encyclical reads less as a warning against technology than a reminder to be human. Humanity may either continue to develop institutions based on greed and self-interest or we can rebuild societies based on dignity, compassion, justice and the common good. The greatest danger today may not be that machines become more human. It may be that human beings slowly forget how to remain human themselves.

***

Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.