When the Vatican announced last month that Pope Francis would be the first Roman pontiff to address the G7 Summit—a meeting of the world’s leading national economic powers—I considered it a unique opportunity for the voice of the Church to be heard in the hearts, minds, and consciences of the global elite. He would be able to call attention to the G7 nations’ records on abortion, euthanasia, and other life issues, topics on which the pope has spoken forcefully. So I was a bit surprised to learn that Francis would address these leaders on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). What would the religious leader of more than a billion Catholics have to say about this emerging technology? Wasn’t he stepping outside his area of competence and taking on an uncertain subject in the developing science of AI?

Then I thought that the leaders of these nations had shown hardened opinions on life issues that would unlikely change in the short run, but they might be open to persuasion on a relatively new issue that was causing fear and confusion. Francis thus would be able to introduce some of the basics of Catholic thought regarding God, humanity, and creation under the rubric of AI, in keeping with this statement from the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes:

Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and its power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of the world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the meaning of its individual and collective strivings, and about the ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity. (GS 3)

When that document was issued in 1965, nuclear weapons and the spread of Soviet communism were the hot topics affecting and afflicting humanity. But the words of Gaudium et Spes can be applied without amendment to our current state of affairs, and especially to AI, which is causing widespread anxiety even among those who have engineered and seeded its growth. With so many individuals, institutions, economies, and governments placing all their operations, secrets, and working knowledge online, it is easy to understand why some well-informed figures say that AI will seize control of the entire digital world and relegate humanity to slavery.

After all, so many people already slavishly rely on their phones for an increasing range of basic tasks such as travel directions, ordering coffee, and balancing their finances, so it’s a small step to see AI as the master app of an online life.

Yet what would a religious leader, nearing 90 years of age, heading the oldest institution in world history, have to say about the unknown influences of this new technology? Well, he could show a rather informed understanding of AI, aided no doubt by expert advisers, and cut through the fear and noise surrounding the issue to provide a ringing reminder about the nature of human beings and the relationship of any technology to God and his creatures. To start, the pope cited a source that most of his listeners would consider a myth or moral fable: the first chapters of Genesis and God’s direction to Adam and Eve to “till and keep” and care for creation (Gen 2:15). Mankind is the custodian of the good things God has made, the pope said, and anything that man makes through his God-given intelligence and ingenuity is meant to be a tool in service to the good. From the first sharpened stone to the cutting-edge technology of AI, the purpose of tools is ultimately to enhance the life of human beings. Thus, the human person and his God-given dignity must be placed at the center of all technology.

Yet humans, having free will and fallen natures, often design and use tools for destruction and dominance, the pope added. He warned of:

. . . a loss, or at least an eclipse, of the sense of what is human and an apparent reduction in the significance of the concept of human dignity. Indeed, we seem to be losing the value and profound meaning of one of the fundamental concepts of the West: that of the human person. Thus, at a time when artificial intelligence programs are examining human beings and their actions, it is precisely the ethos concerning the understanding of the value and dignity of the human person that is most at risk in the implementation and development of these systems.

In our online age, we risk reducing all knowledge and judgment to numerical and algorithmic values, forgetting the purpose of life and the value of human beings created in the image of God, the pope asserted.

In closing his address to political leaders, Pope Francis underscored the role of politics. Although relations between and within nations seem especially strained in our day, we must not lose sight of the need for good and ethical leaders to make important decisions for the people they serve. Political leaders cannot cede the future to technologists who seek advances in their respective fields by legitimate or illegitimate motives and methods. Politics is a noble art that must be practiced with wisdom and foresight as leaders make well-informed decisions, rules, and laws that regulate human behavior and interactions, including the emerging technology of AI.

The pope concluded, “It is up to everyone to make good use of it but the onus is on politics to create the conditions for such good use to be possible and fruitful.”

In one address, on a prominent stage, Pope Francis made the case for the preeminence of God, the inalienable dignity of the human person, and the enduring value of politics when approached in a classical and ethical manner. Maybe his words will have an effect beyond the realm of technology.