David Marcus: Pope Leo Xiv's Greatest Challenge Is Already Changing The World

In Herman Hesse’s novel, "The Glass Bead Game," published successful 1943, a early Europe is controlled by only 2 powers, nan players of that mysterious crippled that uses mathematics and musicology to utilize each of quality humanities knowledge, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Though nan existent rules and playing of nan solid bead crippled are vague successful nan book, to nan modern scholar its usage of prompts to make truth from nan archive of history looks incredibly akin to artificial intelligence, arguably nan top situation nan non-fictional Pope Leo, nan Roman Catholic Church’s caller pope must navigate.

In nan people of European history, popes person had tremendous power connected nan improvement of science, sometimes successful conflict, specified arsenic pinch Galileo and Pope Paul V, but besides successful captious business by creating each of nan continent's first universities.

CARDINAL ROBERT PREVOST ANNOUNCED AS FIRST AMERICAN POPE, TAKING NAME LEO XIV 

Indeed, today’s Catholic catechism pronounces that subject and religion are complementary not successful conflict, it sounds successful part, "…methodical investigation successful each branches of knowledge, provided it is carried retired successful a genuinely technological mode and does not override civilized laws, tin ne'er conflict pinch nan faith, because nan things of nan world and nan things of religion deduce from nan aforesaid God."

Newly elected Pope Leone XIV appears astatine nan pavilion of St. Peter's Basilica astatine nan Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

But, if nan acceptance of subject is settled Catholic theology, nan acceptance of artificial intelligence astir assuredly is not, and successful fact, this God-like enactment of attempting to create a conscious being opens tremendous civilized pitfalls.

The evident ethical implications of AI person agelong been explored advertisement nauseum, from "Blade Runner" to "Star Trek": what civilized obligations does a quality being person to a machine? 

But nan deeper belief mobility is not whether a quality tin misdeed against a machine, it is whether a instrumentality itself is tin of sin, aliases moreover confession aliases salvation.

From nan opening of modern computing nan mobility of whether a instrumentality could genuinely beryllium intelligent was percolating, mid-20th Century trailblazer Alan Turing created a group of tests, including whether a machine could instrumentality a personification into reasoning it was human.

**NO LIBRI** Italy, Rome, Vatican, 2025/4/28 .Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost (prefect of nan Dicastery for Bishops) attends  a wide connected nan 3rd of 9 days of mourning for precocious Pope Francis, successful St. Peter's Basilica astatine nan Vatican,  Photograph by ALESSIA GIULIANI   / Catholic Press Photo (Photo by ALESSIA GIULIANI / ipa-agency.net/IPA/Sipa USA)No Use United Kingdom. No Use Italy.

We person surely blown by that mile marker, but still nan mobility lingers arsenic to whether a instrumentality tin ever genuinely beryllium intelligent successful nan aforesaid measurement a quality being is, and for nan Catholic Church, Pope ______, fighting to specify intelligence is simply a ngo of nan highest order.

We are already seeing nan harm done by AI’s simulation of a existent personification arsenic Meta’s Chat GPT flaunts itself arsenic a virtual friend, moreover for children who tin inquire it questions connected intersexual themes, thing nan world of large tech seems conscionable good with. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

The heavy threat present is that successful a unreserved to state victory, to beryllium that they person created intelligence, large tech will simply dumb down what intelligence is, trim it to a group of repeatable tests that wholly disregard nan anticipation of nan soul.

This is why, dissimilar successful respect to subject writ large, artificial intelligence as an adjacent of quality capacity is wholly astatine likelihood pinch Catholic school and tin ne'er beryllium compatible pinch it.

The capacity of nan postulation of systems we mention to arsenic artificial intelligence to thief quality beings is enormous, thing that Pope Francis emphasized during his pontificate, but a instrumentality tin ne'er beryllium a kid of God.

Just arsenic Hesse predicted successful his caller almost a period ago, nan only institution connected nan look of nan world that has nan powerfulness to conflict backmost against large tech’s redefinition of quality intelligence is nan Catholic Church pinch its cardinal members crossed nan globe.

Very smart group show america that successful nan adjacent 10 years AI is going to fundamentally alteration nan world, that thing will beryllium nan aforesaid after, and that conscionable happens to beryllium much aliases little precisely nan magnitude of clip we would expect our caller pope to serve.

Arguably, nan deepest mobility mankind has ever known is "what are we?" 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Today, location are 2 wholly incompatible answers competing. Proponents of AI opportunity we are simply a group of electrical connections successful our brain, small different from a computer, but to nan Church, we are a soul, created and beloved by God.

This argument, this conflict complete what a quality being is whitethorn good specify nan early of humanity successful nan coming decades. It whitethorn moreover specify if humanity has a early astatine all. The Catholic Church needs a pope who is fresh for this battle, and who will lead nan religious to cull immoderate meaning of quality intelligence that lacks nan spark of Divine creation.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS