Pope Leo XIV urges ethical AI, truth in media to fight manipulation; stresses education, transparency for common good in digital age address.
Newsroom (07/11/2025, Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo XIV called for honest entrepreneurs and communicators dedicated to the common good, warning against dehumanization in the digital era during an address to the RCS Academy Advisory Board.
In a pointed reminder amid discussions on a “new humanism in the digital age,” the pontiff expressed delight at engaging the board of the RCS Academy, which trains professionals in journalism, economics, communication, and enterprise.
He highlighted the risks of communication becoming “a system of algorithms that indefinitely reproduce—without any conscience or awareness—our reasonings, transforming them into mere data.”
An Educational Imperative
Pope Leo framed the board’s work as a critical educational challenge. “Education is what makes active and transformative the equal dignity of all human beings, promoting an effective local and global citizenship, in the sign of participation, solidarity, and freedom,” he said.
He insisted that training in digital environments and critical engagement with artificial intelligence must integrate with the “integral development of persons and communities.”
Warnings Against Dehumanization
The Holy Father cautioned against information overload breeding “new forms of dehumanization and manipulation,” where exploitation masquerades as care and falsehood as truth.
Their dual mission, he said, involves responsible informing and empowering recipients to discern facts from opinions, true news from false.
Recognizing message-generating logics, he added, fosters “conscience and responsibility in the shared construction of public discourse.”
Large enterprises, Pope Leo noted, play a frontline role beyond patronage, intertwining economy, business strategies, and growth objectives.
Dismissing the adage “Business is business,” he urged members to avoid becoming “a cog in its machinery” and to continually question: “Where are we going? For whom and for what are we working? In what way are we making the world better?”
Such probing demands courage and farsightedness, as “there is no future without justice.” The “economy of communication,” he stressed, must align with truth.
Transparency as Foundation
“Transparency of sources and ownership, accountability, quality, clarity, and objectivity are the keys truly to open to all peoples the right of citizenship,” Pope Leo declared. Without them, such rights become “a wound to human society and a betrayal of its weakest or most marginalized members.”
Invoking his predecessor Pope Francis’ words to the director of Corriere della Sera on the connective and divisive power of language, he renewed calls for responsibility and honesty to shape “the information of the future.”
This requires “creativity and capacity for vision,” freeing communication from hasty trends, partisan interests, and uneducative polemics.
New challenges demand “new thoughts and new perspectives” that include the excluded, countering power logics.
A Call to Action
“The world needs honest and courageous entrepreneurs and communicators, who care for the common good,” Pope Leo concluded, urging the board to look beyond short-term gains that impoverish the future.
“May the Gospel of Christ, which remains ever good news for the world, always inspire you in your journey,” he said.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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