The full encyclical can be read here:
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html
In Magnifica Humanitas, the Pope operates from a baseline of modern Western humanism. He views the human person as possessing an inherent, functional moral compass that is under threat from external forces namely: a technocratic elite, corporate greed, and the "perfect machine/AI." The underlying assumption is that if we can just "disarm AI" through rigorous international ethics and social justice, human goodness will prevail.
St. Justin Popovich fiercely critiqued this exact worldview. He argued that Western European culture committed a fatal error by substituting Papism and Humanism for Christ. In his view, Papism (the dogma of papal infallibility) was the ultimate expression of humanism because it elevated a human being to the status of a divine criterion of truth.
St. Justin wrote that humanism attempts to build a world around Homo-deus (the Man-god) rather than Theanthropos (the God-man, Christ). When you look at the AI problem through this lens, the AI is not an external monster invading an innocent humanity. Rather, AI is the ultimate mirror and amplification of fallen human pride which is man trying to create an idol in his own image to achieve immortality and omniscience without God.
The Pope opens his encyclical by stating that humanity faces a choice: either build a new Tower of Babel or construct "the city in which God and humanity dwell together." (Point 7 of the encyclical) While this sounds beautiful, from an Orthodox standpoint, it represents a secularized, moralistic millennialism. It implies that through human treaties, ethical codes, and proper technological stewardship, we can restore paradise.
Orthodoxy teaches that the world remains fractured by the Fall. True peace, justice, and brotherhood are eschatological realities, they belong to the Kingdom of Heaven and the transfiguration of creation at Christ’s second return. Expecting secular governments to implement a "moral ecosystem" to save humanity from AI is an illusion born of a Pelagian mindset (the heresy that human beings can achieve goodness through their own willpower without divine grace). It is also the heresy of chiliasm to build a paradise on Earth with the fallen man not cured from sin. Which is what the antichrist will build according to St Ignatius Brianchaninov (see this chapter called ''On miracles and signs'' http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/st-ignatius-brianchaninov-miracles-and-signs.aspx)
The Pope’s encyclical frames the human ideal through the lens of moralism by being a "good citizen," practicing solidarity, and respecting human rights. In this view, the ultimate goal of humanity is a harmonious, ethically regulated earthly existence where AI is safely kept in its place.
Orthodox theology rejects this flat, horizontal vision. The goal of human life is not merely to be "good" or "moral"; it is to be transfigured and filled with the uncreated energy of God. As the Church Fathers famously stated:
"God became man so that man might become god." — St. Athanasius the Great
We are called to achieve Theosis—to become gods by grace, acquiring the Holy Spirit and overcoming death itself.
By reducing the human calling to mere morality, the Papal view strips humanity of its supernatural destiny. If our only goal is to maintain a moral society free from AI enslavement, we are aiming tragically low. A perfectly ethical society that is not united to Christ is still a society heading to the grave and hell.
In conclusion if a human being is not actively moving toward God through repentance and the sacraments, he will inevitably create idols. AI is the ultimate idol of the West, a digital calf built from the gold of human intellect, worshipped because it promises to solve our problems without requiring us to crucify our egos.
Trying to fix the AI crisis with humanitarian ethics won't help much, as people are suffering from the sinful nature which is a much deeper problem that won't be fixed by just liberating them from AI influence, The only antidote to this is the salvation found in Christ through His Body the Church which makes us gods by grace and restores and trasfigures our fallen nature.
****************************************************
P.S. While the pope is mostly wrong for analysing the AI issue from only a humanistic point of view, it can be still helpful to understand the dangers of AI on man's psychology overall, there is also another topic that the pope treats in this encyclical: the problems of war and calls for peace and love, this is important especially with the satanic rhetoric of KGB Russia and KGB Moscow Patriarchate that justifies this war by calling it ''holy'' so here the pope is more Christian than the satanic regime of Russia but still operates on a humanistic level without the need of repentance and trasformation in Christ, But the thing is that it is not the problem of this current Pope Leo XIV but of the Catholic Church as a whole that was founded on humanism and rationalism since it fell from the Orthodox Church in the XI century, to fix all their heresies the catholics inluding the Pope must repent and return to the Orthodox Church, the Only True Church-The Body of Christ!
But I still respect Pope Leo XIV for speaking out on all these issues while not agreeing with his theological interpretations.