In the introduction to his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”): On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV states, “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. 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.” These are fitting and timely words from the first pope born in the USA. As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, many Americans are giving thought not only to the past but to all that lies before us in the world today.
As artificial intelligence rapidly changes how people perform their work and live their lives, many sense that a part of our humanity is being lost. Are we indeed building a new Tower of Babel? Modern-day people often believe that technological advancement is directly correlated with human progress. If this was true, however, the 20th century would not have seen such incredible brutality and terrible bloodshed. Even with all the lives aided and saved, new technology made it more efficient to kill people. In “developed countries” with advanced economies like the U.S., is there the ability or even the desire to wrestle with the disquieting social reality and some basic moral questions which unsettle us? Or is ignorance bliss?
One of the wealthiest entrepreneur businessmen of the Gilded Age, the Scottish American magnate Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), did everything in his power to prevent World War I—but despite his heroic efforts, the determined, successful man failed. Believing in his potential to lead other people to adopt his philanthropic will for peace, he died a dispirited man. Biographers point out the irony is his own steel that made him wealthy was the material used to build the ships, tanks, and munitions which were used in warfare. In the time that followed, technological and scientific advancement proceeded, taking us into the Atomic Age and then the Computer Age. Looking back on human history, one can observe that every age presents people with exciting opportunities, new responsibilities, and decisions that require serious, sustained reflection and careful moral discernment. The pope is right: we all face pivotal choices in life.
In the primeval history recorded in the Book of Genesis, the people’s decision to build a city and tower was motivated by pride and fear. It is written that they said to each other, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4 ESV). In Christian theology, pride and fear are understood as vices that lead to wrongful, foolish behavior. No doubt, human beings still suffer from what the pope calls the “Babel syndrome.” God, the maker of heaven and earth, commands: “You shall have no other gods before me.” What does this mean? In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” God commands us to put our trust (or faith) in Him and not ourselves or any other created thing.
Like our sinful forebears, we are tempted to believe and act in ways that deny the existence of God and contradict God’s Law. It was the godless, idolatrous communism of the Soviet Union which motivated the U.S. Congress and President Eisenhower to adopt “In God we trust” as our nation’s official motto in July 1956. Do the American people live by that motto? The Atomic Age and the Cold War are past, and the world we live in today is markedly different than it was 70 years ago. In this time of artificial intelligence, we face a pivotal choice of where we will place our trust and with whom we will pledge our allegiance. As Americans, may we choose to live as a nation under God and place our trust in Him.
