The Pope gets it
In age when few political leaders are engaging with AI, Pope Leo XIV gets it.
The most important question about AI isn’t a technical question.
The most important question is about how to maintain and grow a just society in the age of AI.
Gary Marcus is author of Taming Silicon Valley, which happens to be a short, New Yorker-recommended book on how to maintain and grow a just society in the age of the AI.
It's wild -- and a real indictment of our politicians -- that it took a new pope to impactfully articulate what is at stake for human beings in this era.
There’s a real weight to the new Pope choosing the name Leo right now. It feels like a turning point, and I’m hopeful the Church might help more people name what’s at stake and guide the way forward. Not just for Catholics, but for all of us.
Because what’s really on the line isn’t just jobs or systems. It’s whether we still believe in human dignity.
Now more than ever, we need clear moral leadership. The Catholic Church helped build the foundations of Western civilisation - and in a time of moral collapse, coupled with growing concerns about AI and what it will mean for society, it remains one of the few institutions still holding a coherent vision of the human person. That matters.