ICCR Statement in Response to Magnifica Humanitas
In response to the release of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas Josh Zinner, CEO of ICCR, issued the following statement:
“ICCR is grateful for the moral clarity and analytical rigor conveyed in Pope Leo’s encyclical about AI. On so many issues ranging from the over-concentration of corporate power, to income inequality, the future of work, and the danger of surveillance and autonomous weapons, the encyclical highlights the need to not lose sight of the vital human connection. As the Pope underscores in this important work – ‘in an age of continuous technological transformation, we need a political creativity that will promote “work” and place the family and coming generations at the center; otherwise our economic progress will translate into new forms of insecurity and exclusion.’
The unique focus of ICCR in working with companies and investors to ensure that concerns around the ways that businesses conduct themselves are heard and accounted for provides us with a special perspective on the issues explored in this encyclical. The extreme concentration of corporate and financial power in the tech industry, and the distorting power that it commands over our public policy, has been a growing source of alarm for ICCR members and many others. These conditions mean our society will face additional challenges as we strive to put in place sensible guardrails to safeguard the public from the more harmful impacts of AI. The intensity of those challenges does not change the fact that the wider effort to establish safety around this new technology is urgent and necessary. We have been inspired by our members who are meeting this moment and pressing corporations to develop governance guardrails and frameworks to mitigate the AI risks that impact people and planet.
Pope Leo’s encyclical highlights the urgency to remain ‘profoundly human…as technological development rapidly transforms languages, relationships, institutions and forms of power, we… must and can choose which projects to work on and in what manner, so as to safeguard and value the grandeur of humanity that has been given to us as a gift.’ ICCR will continue supporting the efforts of our members and partners to protect and revere that gift and to demand a safe and just economy for us all.”
