"Disarming" Artificial Intelligence?

In hisencyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*, Pope Leo XIV addresses in detail the fundamental challenges posed by artificial intelligence. In it, he calls for nothing less than “disarming” AI. How do experts assess this call—and what alternative models might be conceivable?

The discussion event is organized by the Swiss Data Alliance collaboration with the Institute for Jewish-Christian Research (IJCF) at the University of Lucerne and the Wikimedia CH association.

On the podium:

• Felix Gmür, Bishop of Basel

• Jenny Ebermann, Executive Director of Wikimedia CH

• Christian Rutishauser, S.J., Director of the IJCF (Moderator)

• André Golliez, President of Swiss Data Alliance Moderator)

“Disarming AI means removing it from the logic of armed competition, which today is no longer merely military in nature but also economic and cognitive. This race is about the most powerful algorithm and the largest database, in order to secure a geopolitical or commercial advantage over everyone else. Disarming means breaking this equation between technical power and the right to rule. Disarming does not mean doing without technology, but rather preventing it from dominating humanity. It means taking it away from monopolies, making it open to scrutiny and challenge—and thus life-affirming—and returning it to the diversity of human cultures and ways of life. Today, this task is not merely ethical or technical in nature: it is ecological in the most radical sense, for it concerns a new dimension of our shared home. AI is already an environment that surrounds us and a power we must grapple with. Therefore, it is not enough to regulate it: it must be disarmed and made life-affirming.”

 Encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*, paragraph 110