Kim Bellard
Until a few days ago, I had never heard of the term ‘meat computer’. Clearly this has been around for a while, as discussed by Lora Kelley below: new york timesTech elites are increasingly using it as a way to humanize AI or denigrate what humans can do when it comes to AI (e.g. Elon Musk posted last summer, “Compared to digital superintelligence, we’re all dumb computers.”).
Raphaël Millière, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, told Kelley that the goal of the analogy is “to move public awareness about how human-like and intelligent frontier models are.”
Well, Pope Leo doesn’t accept that.
On Monday, he published his first encyclical, “Magnifica humanitas: On the Protection of the Human Being in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” It’s about 200 pages long, so please forgive me if I have to rely solely on the summary. But he raises issues that he hopes our politicians and business leaders will pay proper attention to.
The encyclical appears to be one of the highest teachings a pope can give, and since it is rarely delivered directly from the pope, he takes it very seriously. Just as he should.
He claims AI is the new industrial revolution and urges us to “disarm” it. “Disarming AI means freeing it from the ‘armed’ competitive mentality that today is not simply limited to a military context, but is also an economic and cognitive phenomenon. Disarmament does not mean abandoning the technology, but preventing AI from dominating humanity.”
He said, “Artificial intelligence must be disarmed and liberated from the logic that made it a tool of domination, exclusion, and death.” “We must serve all people and the common good.”
The Pope made it clear that he was not opposed to technology per se. “Technology should not be viewed in itself as a force hostile to humanity.” But the question is how the technology will be used and what impact it will have on people. “For this reason, simply regulating it is not enough; it must be disarming, welcoming and accessible,” he said.
He is particularly concerned that control over AI and the wealth it generates should not be concentrated in the hands of a small elite.
AI tends to amplify the power of those who already have economic resources, expertise, and access to data. Small but highly influential groups can shape information and consumption patterns, influence democratic processes, and manipulate economic dynamics to their advantage, undermining social justice and solidarity between people.
And he points out that “despite high levels of technological development, a society that guarantees employment to only a small portion of the population risks exposing many people to forced inactivity. This creates a paradox of material progress and anthropological regression that undermines the foundations of a just and stable social peace.”
Marx and Engels would recognize this, although not the “meat computer” metaphor.
The Pope indirectly but firmly denied the meat-computer analogy.
Building for the common good means accepting humanity’s limitations and weaknesses rather than viewing them as errors to be corrected. We must avoid the misunderstanding of equating this type of ‘intelligence’ with human intelligence. These systems simply mimic certain features of human intelligence. In doing so, they often surpass human intelligence in speed and computational power, providing practical advantages in a variety of fields. However, this power is entirely related to data processing.
The Pope presents our choice through Biblical references to Babel or Jerusalem: “The primary choice is not between ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but between building Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem, between the forces that claim to control heaven and those who work together before God to rebuild the wall of fraternal coexistence.”
His choice is clear:
If so, we must avoid the ‘Babel Syndrome’: the idolatry of profit at the expense of the weak, uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the belief that a single language, even a digital language, can translate everything, including personal mysteries, into data and performance.
The Pope was joined in the presentation by Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic. Mr Ola said: “Today is just the beginning. It is the beginning of a long collaboration between the people who build these buildings and those who can see what we cannot see inside.” He added, “We need informed critics who will tell the lab when we fail. We need a moral voice that won’t bend incentives.”
“Leo sees the challenge of AI as a choice about its design and who gets to make those choices,” said Vincent Miller, a theology professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Wall Street Journal.
Not surprisingly, the Pope directly mentions the use of AI in warfare. “Moral judgment cannot be reduced to calculation, because it involves conscience, personal responsibility, and recognition of others as persons,” he wrote. “Therefore, it is unacceptable to entrust fatal or irreversible decisions to artificial systems.”
He is also concerned about its use in politics and its potential impact on children. And he calls our data “the new power of rare earths” and warns:
Herein lies one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time. It is about ensuring that shared knowledge is a true common good rather than a tool of domination. This requires restoring not only the data that describes individuals, but also the ability to determine how that data is used, by whom, and for whose benefit.
The Pope warned: “We need a strong legal framework, independent oversight, informed users and an accountable political system.” It will take more than “hope and prayer” to make this happen.
In light of the recent verbal exchange, I’m excited to see how President Trump reacts. In fact, British theologian Anna Rowlands, one of the encyclical presenters, said: “I think the danger for the American audience is to just pigeonhole everything into some kind of drama between Trump and Leo.” But she went on to add: “When you read the section on power, there are certainly questions you can ask about the United States, but there are also questions about the tech industry itself, as well as other global leaders.”
Bigger than Trump, bigger than America, bigger than technology.
The Pope doesn’t have all the answers, and he probably doesn’t ask all the right questions. But he’s made a decision with some very specific concerns, and it’s up to the meat computers in all of us to seize them and take action.
Kim is a former emarketing executive at Major Blues Plan and editor of the late & Mourned. Tincture.ioCurrently a regular THCB contributor.
