Pope Leo encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (downloads PDF)
“The future with artificial intelligence is very uncertain, and we will get there very quickly” (Dr David Barstow)
Dr David Barstow is a member of the Faith and Science Working Group of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing. He earned a PhD in artificial intelligence at Stanford 50 years ago, and has seen the field grow from an obscure academic discipline to a rapidly changing technology that will have dramatic effects on society and the planet. Read more here.
Artificial Intelligence:
What’s the big deal?
Online resources (on Vimeo)
– catalysts for discussion for churches
An online version is available at TalkingWithAIAboutFaith.org, including captions in German, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.
October 2026
Franciscan philosopher and theologian Father Paolo Benanti recently met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Australian Prime Minister’s Sydney residence. Father Benanti was in Australia at the invitation of the Embassy of Italy to take part in a series of roundtable discussions on artificial intelligence and ethics, organised as part of the commemorations of the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis. He shared with the Prime Minister his reflections on the need to keep human beings and their freedom of choice at the centre of efforts to govern the development of AI, in keeping with the ideas expressed in Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. The Prime Minister expressed agreement with that view, emphasising Australia’s commitment to ensuring that artificial intelligence benefits humanity rather than harming it.