Pope Leo's encyclical on AI, and the Vatican science advisors

On Monday, Pope Leo XIV presented his encyclical, an open letter from the church, on AI. The 42,000-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.”  How did the Pope arrive at these views? Among those advising him on AI and other matters are scientists: members of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.  Host Flora Lichtman talks with one of those members, anthropologist Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, about the encyclical and what it’s like to advise the Pope. Guest: Dr. Marcelo Suárez-Orozco is an anthropologist and chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Other episodes you may enjoy: How Is AI Being Used In The Iran War? An AI Leader’s Human-Centered Approach To Artificial Intelligence Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.