Catholics must respond to AI threat to authentic, human communication, Vatican says

Europe

Pope Leo XIV waves to pilgrims gathered for the Mass for the Jubilee of Catechists on Sept. 28, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media Vatican City, Sep 29, 2025 / 10:50 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV has put a spotlight on the risks of artificial intelligence in his choice of theme for next year’s World Day of Social Communications, as the Vatican emphasizes the important role of Catholics in media and AI literacy.The pope’s choice of theme for the 60th World Day of Social Communications 2026, published Monday, is “Preserving Human Voices and Faces.” The day is celebrated every year on Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists and writers.The Vatican’s explanatory note emphasizes the risks of AI, including that it “can generate engaging but misleading, manipulative, and harmful information, replicate biases and stereotypes from its training data, and amplify disinformation through simulation of human voices and faces.”The theme of the World Day of Social Communications was released as the Vatican’s communication department is struggling to stem the tide of “deepfakes,” false images and videos of Pope Leo XIV saying and doing things he did not say or do.Pope Leo XIV signaled at the beginning of his pontificate that the challenge of AI would be a significant theme of his teaching.The Vatican announcement on Monday urged the introduction of media and artificial intelligence literacy into educational systems to combat the risk of misinformation.“As Catholics we can and should give our contribution, so that people — especially youth — acquire the capacity of critical thinking and grow in the freedom of the spirit,” the document says.The Vatican message underlines that “public communication requires human judgment, not just data patterns.”“The challenge is to ensure that humanity remains the guiding agent,” it says. “The future of communication must be one where machines serve as tools that connect and facilitate human lives rather than erode the human voice.”