Pope Leo XIV Defines AI Ethics as a Second Industrial Revolution

This moral intervention follows Chris Olah's Vatican AI safety analysis. The encyclical warns that delegating sensitive decisions—like credit or employment—to automated systems risks removing "compassion and mercy." It targets the "apparent objectivity" of models that reflect the cultural biases of their designers.

Willison highlights the Pope's proposal to treat data as a "common good" rather than private property, arguing that ownership should be regulated as a collective product. This shift, alongside concerns about the environmental cost of models, signals a growing pressure to move beyond technical safety toward broad social and economic accountability.