Artificial intelligence seems to have found its way into almost everything.
Schools are trying to balance using it in some areas while weeding it out in others. Some universities are returning to handwritten blue book exams to ensure original thought. Others are using artificial intelligence to screen assignments for signs they were generated by artificial intelligence. Employers face similar questions about where technology should assist workers and where it should replace them.
For Catholic colleges in Western Pennsylvania, however, the debate recently gained another voice.
Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” is not a warning against artificial intelligence so much as a challenge to those developing and using it. The pope argues technology should serve humanity rather than the other way around, asking how society can embrace innovation without sacrificing human dignity.
For leaders at Duquesne University, Saint Vincent College and Carlow University, this isn’t a rejection of AI. It’s a road map for its use.
“He’s not saying, ‘Let’s get rid of AI,’” said James Swindal, Duquesne professor of philosophy and Catholic studies. “He is saying, ‘Let’s put it where it belongs.’”
The concern is not the technology but how it is used.
“Pope Leo was very concerned in that encyclical about how human beings would be mistreated with the inappropriate use of AI, and that’s something that goes against the fundamentals of the church,” Saint Vincent College President the Rev. Paul R. Taylor said. “Human life is sacred, and for us to recognize that value of human life is our ultimate priority.”
It’s a distinction that matters.
AI is not science fiction anymore. This isn’t “The Matrix.” It is an industrial revolution reshaping classrooms, workplaces and daily life. Communities are debating the future of data centers. The technology is here and cannot be denied.
Western Pennsylvania understands those revolutions. The archaeology of them surrounds us, from coal mines and railroads to steel mills. More recently, fracking and technology have brought their own opportunities and challenges. Every evolution forced communities to change and adapt.
Artificial intelligence is becoming as integral to the academic and medical industries as machinery once was to factories and mills. It offers extraordinary promise for advancement and progress. At the same time, it raises legitimate concerns.
The question is not whether AI will be used. It is whether people will be beneficiaries or casualties.
That is where Pope Leo’s message has value beyond Catholic colleges or even the Catholic Church.
This isn’t a Christian imperative but a human one.
The challenge is not to stop innovation. It is to ensure innovation serves people rather than asking people to serve it.
Western Pennsylvania has spent generations navigating the opportunities and disruptions created by transformative technologies. Artificial intelligence may be the latest chapter in that story, but it will not be the last.
The choices made today will determine whether AI becomes another tool that expands human potential or one that diminishes it.