Curious what the pope's encyclical on AI says & how it applies to health care, but don't have time to read the almost-40,000-word document?

I read the whole thing so you don't have to.

The pope's view on AI is refreshing and echoes ideas from tech thinkers like Karen Hao & Nilay Patel.

A fun one:

https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/03/pope-encyclical-catholic-health-system-implications-ai-prognosis/

#health #healthcare #medicine #AI #artificialintelligence #encyclical #pope #catholic #catholicism

Pope Leo XIV & AI: "Magnifica Humanitas"

#AI #pope #encyclical

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/us/pope-leo-ai-anthropic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mlA.YrtC.zVT07xNStwT1&smid=url-share

Weekly output: Pope Leo XIV on AI, American Airlines + Starlink, Taara photonics, New Glenn explosion, way less Waymo

I did not see Project Hail Mary as soon as possible, but I did see it tonight and am very glad that I did, If you haven’t watched that movie, please do so while it’s still available on a big screen at a theater near you.

Patreon readers got an extra post Saturday inspired by a different sort of larger-than-life multimedia experience, seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Nats Park Wednesday: a recap of the few years when I had “concert reviewer” as a low-paying, in-house side hustle at the Washington Post.

5/25/2026: Pope Leo XIV: Unchecked AI Development Risks Building a New Tower of Babel, PCMag

I spent much of Monday morning reading the pope’s encyclical about AI, then spent much of the afternoon writing a post unpacking that lengthy document for PCMag readers. Yes, Monday was a holiday, but as somebody brought up Catholic who then went to a Jesuit university, I felt like I had to do this work.

5/26/2026: American Airlines Will Switch to Starlink for Now, But Only on Airbus Narrowbodies, PCMag

American’s press release about this coming upgrade to the WiFi on part of its fleet left multiple questions unanswered, so I was glad that a publicist for AA fielded my questions as quickly as she did.

5/29/2026: Taara CEO: Our free-space optics links go where fiber won’t, Light Reading

I sat down with Mahesh Krishnaswamy, founder and CEO of this Alphabet moonshot offshoot, at the start of a busy day at Web Summit Vancouver two weeks ago. A small part of that conversation surfaced in a piece I did for PCMag about photonics that itself began with a trip to San Jose for NTT Research’s Upgrade conference there in mid April (with NTT covering my travel costs), but the rest had to wait for this piece. That, in turn,  required me to have some downtime in which to write it, and as you may have noticed May was another ridiculous month for travel.

5/29/2026: Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Explodes Spectacularly During Ground Test, PCMag

This is an outright disaster, and not just for Blue–if you want to see SpaceX get some competition for satellite-to-phone data, fast inflight WiFi and a return of American astronauts to the Moon’s surface, New Glenn would have been at least helpful if not outright essential. Blue not only has to figure out what went wrong with its heavy-lift rocket and fix that, it also has to either rebuild the launch complex mostly destroyed by this explosion or speed up construction of the second pad it has planned.

5/29/2026: Waymo Halts Freeway Operations, Stops Service in Some Cities Without Clearly Communicating What’s Up, PCMag

I had missed covering Waymo ending freeway service because that happened when I was flying home from Google I/O, but after seeing how badly that company had informed customers about that cutback in service and its suspensions of all service in some cities, I realized I had a broader piece to write.

Merchant on Anthropic and the Vatican. Worth a read.

#ai #encyclical #pope #aiethics

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-anthropic-used-its-ai-ethicslop

I started reading the Pope's recent encyclical on #AI. Despite me being agnostic and never having huge touch points with Catholicism, I'm curious about the theological angle on modern tech.

I'll collect some quotes in this thread. Full text in multiple languages can be found here: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

#encyclical #MagnificaHumanitas

Le pape Léon publie une encyclique très progressiste et clairvoyante. Elle fera date.
Il réfute et abolit le concept chrétien prévalant depuis des centaines d'années, de "guerre juste". Seule la paix est juste.
Il est très critique vis à vis de l'utilisation de l'IA, surtout au niveau militaire
Cet article détaille son texte.
Du coup, ses relations avec les US vont sûrement se détériorer, car les groupes protestants extrémistes n'accepteront jamais cette encyclique.

> ‘Unjust to Remain Neutral’: On Pope’s Algorithmic Peace and Middle East’s Real Wars
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/unjust-to-remain-neutral-on-popes-algorithmic-peace-and-middle-easts-real-wars/
#popeLeo
#leonXIV
#encyclical
#wars