Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
What the excitement around Pope Leo XIV reveals
I wrapped up my last article on the theme of ethical leadership and the contrast that Pope Leo’s style of eminence poses to the style of that other American world leader whose name I don’t need to mention. Pope Leo XIV represents the kind of ethical leadership we once took for granted—at least in the United States of America. He cares about tradition without being tethered to it. In his press conference to members of the media on May 12, he echoed some of the same ideas he articulated back in 2012, although back then, he spoke more about the consumer’s role as a critical thinker; this time he emphasized the media’s role in communicating the truth. “I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives — the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed.” He said that “only informed individuals can make free choices,” and he called on nations and the international community to “safeguard the precious gift of free speech and of the press.” As a librarian, I am trained to curate information, to analyze it, connect it to its source, and use my powers of discernment. ‘Trust but verify,’ so to speak. In the age of artificial intelligence, the media especially have the added responsibility of discerning how the information is created, curated, and disseminated.
The Pope’s words got me thinking much about the ways we consume information and how that information colors or filters both digital and real-life behavior. And then I saw a post on Substack, a very simple post—a black background and some text. It was a quote attributed to His Holiness. It said, “To be called woke in a world that sleeps through suffering is no insult.” I thought it a beautiful and wise idea, but I was skeptical of the attribution. I’m seeing more and more of these false attributions where Pope Leo is concerned. According to Snopes, the very day that Robert Prevost was elected Pope (May 8), the quote (in fact, part of a larger body of text) began circulating on the social networks. Snopes traced it back to a Threads user who fused it with a meme generator template and later admitted that the words were A.I. generated. The quote itself is actually quite lovely, and of course it is true that to be “woke” (simply put, to be awake to social injustices) is not a bad thing. Of course, the term “woke” has been distorted by various people, each having an agenda. The enemy of DEI, for instance, is against the idea of being “woke” because the enemy of DEI wants to maintain a status quo where white males sustain inherited privilege. The late Pope Francis was accused of being “woke” (the “woke Pope”) because he believed (and I agree) that all humans deserve dignity. Those of us who want so badly for Pope Leo to be like Francis are easy targets for the “woke meme,” as I will call it. I nearly fell for it, but only for a second. Oh! He said that? Really? A simple Google search provided an immediate denial. This “woke meme” is a perfect example of the importance of having the finely tuned instinct for inquiring into the source of information. Where did this come from? In the case of the woke meme, it came from Threads. How was it created? If something is an actual quote, ask the identifying questions: who, when, where, to whom?
Here is something that Pope Leo actually said, in Italian:
“Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression. We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening.”
We know he said this because….we can see him saying it? No, videos can be faked, but there were a lot of witnesses—more than a thousand journalists—watching him make this speech.
There’s another video that made the rounds on social media, one that shows Pope Leo sharply denouncing the immigration policies of the Trump Administration and naming J.D. Vance in particular. It does, indeed, appear to be Pope Leo speaking, his image juxtaposed with images of Vance. However, it is suspiciously isolated audio and the video itself has noticeable moments of transition, as if it was edited and spliced together. That Pope Leo has been a recent favorite for A.I. manipulation just goes to show that his warnings are on point. He acknowledged the “immense potential” of A.I. if used responsibly, but as we see in the faked memes and videos of the Pope himself, A.I. poses a danger for its capacity to be used in propaganda. Used irresponsibly, it can mislead us. The fake memes of Pope Leo are proof, as if it was needed, that partisan interest groups are seeking to use him to promote their agendas.
It’s not that I don’t want, as much as any other progressive, the new Pope to sound like the late Pope Francis. I just want his words to actually be his words. Making him another “woke Pope” using words not his own is just…counterproductive. It doesn’t count. It is also too much of a projection of American partisan politics on the centuries-old Catholic Church, an institution that has so much more meaning than the ever-shifting conflicts between MAGA and Woke. Popes are larger than kings, not because they have more power, but because they endure. The Church has an omnipotence that politics cannot achieve. Presidencies change after four (or eight) years. I was not two years old when the papacy of John Paul II began. I was nearly 28 when it ended with his demise. That’s a generation. If Pope Benedict had not resigned, his papacy, begun in 2005, would have ended at his death in 2022. We had twelve years of Pope Francis, and now many of us are hoping that Pope Leo will be an extension of the compassionate, openminded path laid by Francis. On May 8, shortly after the Conclave elected Robert Francis Prevost, a cousin of mine posted on Facebook, no doubt echoing the thoughts of many, “I hope he’s just like Francis!” Between the middle name and the tweets from X account @ drprevost, there is little wonder that progressives are holding onto hope that he will be Francis 2.0 while the Far Right laments his lack of “America First” credentials.
The New York columnist David French warned against viewing the new Pope in the narrow-minded lens of partisan politics. Doing so is not just limiting, and short-sighted, but it also runs the risk of defining his pontificate prematurely. Pope Leo XIV is not a blank slate. In the short time since the Conclave, he has already expressed profound ideas about the state of the world and the issues that stymie us.
His path to ordination began at age 14 with his enrollment at the St. Augustine Seminary High School. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University, he went onto collect graduate and postgraduate degrees in divinity and canon law. As a novice priest, he chose to be initiated into the Order of St. Augustine. Augustinians are guided by the Rule of St. Augustine, taking a vow of poverty, committing to serious labor, and some period of solitude. They work hard and prize obedience and chastity on the one hand, but also are driven to make decisions in a community. The shepherd doesn’t rule the flock in a top down fashion, but rather consults with his sheep. The shepherd doesn’t lecture; he engages in dialogue. It is democratic and diplomatic. We have already heard the Pope talk about his view that his role is to among the people, not above; to make himself small, “move aside” and listen to the people. The people of the Catholic Church, as David French noted, are not a political party. They are “multitudes.” Using the shepherd analogy, they are many varied sheep, many flocks even, finding common ground under the Bishop of Rome. Leo’s international credentials—dual citizen of Peru and the U.S., fluent in Italian, Spanish, English, Latin—are his most often cited attributes as a Pope. Even his ancestry—uniting Creole and Cajun—adds to his universal appeal as a leader for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Although it is undeniable that the Pope seems to stand for everything in opposition to Trump—building bridges, not walls; unity, not division; inclusion, not exclusion; peace, not conflict; diplomacy, not empire; democracy, not authoritarianism—these are not stances of partisanship. They are strategies for long-term success, something the Church has always been rather good at despite occasional setbacks. As David French put it, the Pope’s views are hardly “Far Left” (something only the Far Right says). They’re actually just dyed-in-the-wool Christian views. French argues that the Pope’s views on justice, climate science and immigration are really just “mainstream,” unless of course you’re viewing him through a MAGA lens.
Yet as much as we all want Leo to follow in the footsteps of Francis, I think it is very important, when we see a meme online that expresses an opinion in his name, to pause, put on the librarian hat, and trust but verify its authenticity. We don’t want to spread fake news. Even fake news that agrees with us, that sends dopamine to our brains, has a cost to freedom. As Pope Leo said, “only informed individuals can make free choices.”
