Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitatis, offers the opportunity to reflect on the importance which technology will continue to plan in our lives and, in particular, the role of Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to as AI. The first chapter of Pope Leo’s encyclical contrasts two architectural models for understanding society with one looking at a modern-day Tower of Babel and the other the New City of Jerusalem. The former is built on the pride and hubris of human beings acting without any reference to the Divine or any moral code, an edifice created without guardrails that trumpets the view, because man can he will. Compare Babel to Nehemiah’s restoration of Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile. This was to be a city built on communality and selflessness, where inhabitants work for the common good. If Babel reflects the vanity of man’s (misguided) ambitions, the architecture of the New Jerusalem epitomises the dignity of every human person contributing to a purpose that is greater than themselves.

AI, in common understanding, continues the quest for optimisation and the search for something that is bigger, better, faster - greater rewards for diminished effort. Leo’s argument, in a nutshell, is that technology should exist to enrich lives and, in a sense, make us more human rather than diminish our capacity to think or make moral judgments. From a boy’s perspective, AI can be a useful tool in summarising differing interpretations or providing a digest of a specific topic. Co-Pilot’s summary of the encyclical was helpful to the author of these Notes who, in all truth, didn’t have the time to read eighty-four pages from start to finish. As a starting point, summaries are helpful but they are no substitute for engaging with texts in the original or going back to the sources, as one would with history. Boys themselves know there are no shortcuts to understanding because they have worked out that anything of any value demands time and effort. This applies to academics, playing sport, learning a musical instrument or performing on the stage.

The most obvious limitation to technology is that AI or any other tool can never replace, even if they try to replicate, the joy of human relationships or the importance of conscience in shaping the choices we make in life. These cannot be outsourced to computer algorithms because fundamentally all of us are spiritual beings who bear the mark of the Creator of all things visible and invisible.