Hey, I'm Flora, and you are listening to Science Friday.

Your brothers and sisters, I want to thank all of you for being here today, for your interest.

On Monday, Pope Leo presented his encyclical, an open letter from the

church on AI. The 40,000 plus word document covers a lot of terrain from screen time to resource extraction

to job loss. But the core message is summed up in the title, Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting

attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.

How did the Pope arrive at these views? You know, there's thousands of years of doctrine,

but in addition, there's a group of

scientists who convene and present to the Holy Father, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which has

roots going back 400 years. Today, we're talking to a member of the Pontifical Academy of

Social Sciences who has led conferences on AI for the church. We'll hear about this encyclical and the role of these committees.

Dr. Marcello Suarez Orozco is an anthropologist and chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Marcella, welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks, Flora, for having me.

Thanks for being here.

So Pope Leo seems to be telling us in this encyclical that we are at a crossroads, that AI could be like the Tower of Babel, a sort of sign of humanities, arrogance. Can you walk us through this idea?

Yes. I want to start by saying this is a magnificent document. The metaphoric order,

the Tara Babel, the idea of disarming a technology in the service of humanity.

So I think it's an act of courage to put himself at the center of a debate where so much is unknown, so much magical thinking saturates.

And I think that what you really should think about, Flora, is this was such an American way of introducing an encyclical.

The popes write this, and they let the others do the work.

...