Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Pope Leo XIV has signaled that artificial intelligence will be a defining concern of his pontificate, with his encyclical Magnifica humanitas addressing it directly. In this three-part series, the Acton Institute's Dan Hugger sits down with scholars across economics, history, and anthropology to ask what Catholic social teaching has to say about the AI revolution, as well as what an encyclical on AI will need to grapple with.
Historian Dr. John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, sets today's anxieties about AI against the original Rerum Novarum and the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution. Why do people work? What was actually new about the "new things"? And what can Pope Leo XIII's prudential application of principle teach Pope Leo XIV about meeting an information revolution without falling into either Luddism or naïve optimism?
The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants.
In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.
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Subscribe to the Acton Line Podcast: acton.org/acton-line
Visit the Acton Bookshop: shop.acton.org
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Pope Leo XIV has signaled that artificial intelligence will be a defining concern of his pontificate, with his encyclical Magnifica humanitas addressing it directly. In this three-part series, the Acton Institute's Dan Hugger sits down with scholars across economics, history, and anthropology to ask what Catholic social teaching has to say about the AI revolution, as well as what an encyclical on AI will need to grapple with.
Historian Dr. John Pinheiro, director of research at the Acton Institute, sets today's anxieties about AI against the original Rerum Novarum and the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution. Why do people work? What was actually new about the "new things"? And what can Pope Leo XIII's prudential application of principle teach Pope Leo XIV about meeting an information revolution without falling into either Luddism or naïve optimism?
The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants.
In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.
Visit our website: acton.org
Subscribe to the Acton Line Podcast: acton.org/acton-line
Visit the Acton Bookshop: shop.acton.org
Follow Acton on Facebook: facebook.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Twitter: twitter.com/ActonInstitute
Follow Acton on Instagram: instagram.com/acton_institute
