'Technology is never neutral': the Pope says the quiet part out loud, and
it's time we accept that AI and tech's failures and dangers are human-made

Date:
Tue, 26 May 2026 16:16:42 +0000

Description:
Pope Leo's Encyclical, 'Magnifica humanitas,' has many warnings about the dangers of unfettered AI, but it's what he says more broadly about technology that really resonates.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Technology is so pervasive that it's often simultaneously sold as the cure for all ills and the source of everyone's problems. Most rational people including, it seems, the Pope don't believe this.

In his recent Papal Encyclical, the relatively new Pope Leo wrote extensively about the threats artificial Intelligence poses to humanity, but also buried among the 42,300 words was this: "In the abstract, technology in and of
itself is not a solution to humanity's problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it."
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It's not a new thought, but it's notable because, well, it's the leader of
the world's 1.4 billion Catholics saying it, and it's also putting a fine point on the pivotal role that tech plays in our lives, and how we tend to both oversell and undersell its impact.

Technology writ large is just another tool, not a force for good or for evil; and its effects, for good and ill, will depend on who wields it, and how. Whose point a view? AI, of course, changes that equation, because people see or at least infer agency in its actions. Its prompt-driven conversations
with us sound rich with a consciousness that's not there. ChatGPT, Gemini,
and Claude often appear to have a point of view.

They don't and I think much of the Pope's document puts the onus on humanity to wrest control of the narrative from AI. It's not smart or powerful enough to act on our behalf, and certainly not in our best interests, but doing nothing and letting future AI develop unfettered is most certainly a recipe for disaster. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me
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This, though, connects to another thought in the Pope's statement. He writes that "technology is never neutral." One could argue that, by extension, AI isn't neutral either.

As generative AI inches closer to general artificial intelligence (GAI), or something approximating human intelligence, it does not necessarily shed the initial bias of its early training (or as the Pope wrote, " the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it") .

In the last few years, OpenAI and Google have worked diligently to rid
ChatGPT and Gemini , respectively, of bias, but there are so many avenues data collection, labelling, training, how the systems are deployed through which bias can causally enter the training that it's hard to believe they've scrubbed it all. What to read next OpenAI exec says AI 'doomers' are holding back incredible economic opportunities The agentic future: Why AI's greatest power is amplifying human potential With SynthID, Google is cleaning up the
AI mess it helped make, but Omni power makes it clear we'll never get ahead
of generative AI fiction AI unfettered Even as they do the work, the Pope's point resonates. After all, AI remains largely unregulated, with states in
the US and governing bodies like the European Union playing catch-up, and working, as bureaucracy often does, at about a third of the speed of AI development (see ' AI Time '); which means it's up to us to remember that AI and tech are not inherently good or bad, and also not neutral.

The goal then should be for humans to act as the filter, constantly asking, how are we using these tools, and asking, what does that answer mean? Does
the AI understand the goal, and does it take into account broader
perspectives and ramifications? The answers will likely be no, which means it's our job to take a closer look at the end product AI is delivering and then process it for human consumption.

To be fair to the companies building these AI systems, the notion of tech neutrality and trust is not novel to AI. After all, the advent of broadband, access to the world's information, social media, and misinformation at scale predates generative AI access by decades.

We are not by nature a discerning people. We take the information provided on our various platforms for granted. No wonder, then, that when AI started confidently telling us falsehoods or misrepresenting people, we took it as truth.

As Einstein never said , "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with
our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots." It's a quote widely misattributed to the genius, but also a valuable reminder: tech and AI are tools, and if we don't get a handle on them, we're just a bunch of tools. The Pope could've written that, too.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/technology-is-never-neutral- the-pope-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-and-its-time-we-accept-that-ai-and-techs -failures-and-dangers-are-human-made


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