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A charity presented Pope Leo XIV with a unique piece of artwork in its push to “protect human dignity” and establish “what should stay human in the age of AI,” an official told Fox News Digital.
Photos released by Saint Peter for Humanity captured the pope receiving the “Sphere of Humanity” — a green, Murano glass sculpture that “incorporates handwritten passages from his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, reflecting on human dignity, vulnerability, solidarity, conscience and the challenges posed by artificial intelligence” — during his General Audience in early September.
The presentation came as Saint Peter for Humanity said it is gearing up next week to gather 70 leaders in New York City to “begin drafting the Codex Humanitatis, an independent initiative inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s call to safeguard human dignity as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly powerful and influential in people’s lives.”
“We recognize the benefits of AI. We just believe again that there is another force that should belong to that conversation, that other force is humanity,” Olivier Francois, the organization’s president and chairman, told Fox News Digital. “So the Codex Humanitatis, which is our initiative, starts from that simple idea. AI should serve people, protect human dignity, expand human potential and advance common good.”
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“So what are we going to do in New York? We are going to gather 70 Nobel laureates, artists, thinkers, philanthropists, technology and AI experts, obviously that’s important, and we will ask them maybe the hardest question of our times, you know, as artificial intelligence grows even more powerful, what must remain human?” Francois added. “So obviously, before we head over to machines, we should be clear about what we value most in ourselves. So we will try to define what being human means and what should stay human in the age of AI. So this is a little bit of the initiative we shared with Pope Leo while presenting the sphere and this symbolic gift.”
The sphere, based on an original design by Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti, contains four handwritten passages from Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, including, “In the era of artificial intelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human.”
The pope wrote in the encyclical released in May, “Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible,” yet “every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world.
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“For AI to respect human dignity and truly serve the common good, responsibility must be clearly defined at every stage: from those who design and develop these systems to those who use them and rely on them for concrete decisions,” the pope wrote. “In many cases, however, the internal processes leading to a result remain opaque, making it harder to assign responsibility and correct errors. This is where accountability becomes crucial: the possibility of identifying who must ‘account’ for decisions, justify them, monitor them, and, when necessary, challenge them and remedy any harm caused.
“Calling for prudence, rigorous evaluation and even, at times, a slower pace in adopting AI does not mean opposing progress; instead, it is an exercise of responsible care for the human family. This need is all the more urgent given the frequent imbalance between the speed of technological growth and the slower development of awareness, norms, safeguards and institutions capable of governing its effects,” the pope also said. “It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required. Otherwise, change will be governed only by technocratic thinking and presented as necessary and inevitable, ultimately imposing rules shaped by those who control data, infrastructure and computing power.”
Saint Peter for Humanity said in a statement about its New York gathering, “Working across ten groups, participants will develop a first draft of the Codex focused on issues including the future of work, accountability, information integrity, human oversight and the protection of children and families.”
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“The draft will then enter a global consultation process before being refined into a final set of principles. Saint Peter for Humanity plans to engage governments, companies and institutions in translating those principles into practice, including through engagement at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos,” the nonprofit added.
