Pope Leo's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, devotes its most unsettling chapter to war, peace, and the "culture of power" that AI is quietly accelerating. In Panel 2 of our 3-part series, Edmund Mitchell sits down with three expert guests who carry this question between worlds that usually don't speak to each other:

Taylor Black — Director of AI and Venture Ecosystems at Microsoft; Founding Executive Director of the Leonine Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies at the Catholic University of America; deacon candidate

Julianne Stanz — Director of Outreach for Evangelization and Discipleship at Loyola Press; consultant to the U.S. Bishops on Catechesis; coined "tabernacle with feet" at the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress

Fr. Philip Larrey — Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, formerly Dean of Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome; author of Connected World and Artificial Humanity; a longtime dialogue between the Holy See and Silicon Valley

We dig into:

— Why Pope Leo refuses to be either a Luddite or a technologist
— "AI is not neutral" — and why it's also not intrinsically evil
— The three refusals: false realism, manichaeism, and the belief that war is inevitable
— Why three commencement speakers were booed in a single week for mentioning AI
— Autonomous weapons, "tactical nukes," and the crisis of multilateralism
— The Rome Call for AI Ethics, Anthropic at the Vatican, and what's actually happening behind closed doors
— Why Pope Leo says AI cannot make a moral decision
— AGI in four years? Five? Ever? — Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Demis Hassabis, and what a philosopher tells worried students
— Taylor's 50-page prompt and "metacognitive strategies" — what it actually looks like to use AI well
— Mary as poet and prophetess: how the encyclical closes
— And the line that quietly anchors the whole document: "The first contribution we can make toward a more humane civilization is to be mindful of our words."

This is Panel 2 of three. To watch Panel 1 (Matthew Harvey Sanders, Dr. Brett Robinson, Fr. Jean Gové) click the link below.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Opening prayer and welcome
01:14 Introducing Taylor, Julianne, and Fr. Philip
06:25 First impressions of Magnifica Humanitas
09:55 Three chapters of anthropology 
11:30 "Idolatry of AI" and "demonizing it" 
15:48 Why three commencement speakers were booed
18:32 Gen Z's nose for the inauthentic
22:23 Fear, the pocketbook, and the builder mindset
27:34 Tower of Babel vs. New Jerusalem
28:30 What's happened between 2020 and 2026 in tech + the Vatican
34:00 Realism is not resignation
38:45 The Rome Call, Anthropic, and the Eastern anthropology
43:17 The crisis of multilateralism, drones, and Italy's two boxes
47:32 The conditions that lead to war
52:03 Can we actually change the corporations racing to AGI?
54:24 The line between good and evil runs through every human heart
57:00 Why AI cannot make a moral decision
59:01 "Disarm your words" 
01:04:28 The Trinity, large language models, and Aquinas
01:08:49 Mary, the Word, and a narrative of hope
01:13:12 What is AGI?
01:21:39 Practical: how do you actually use AI as a Catholic?
01:23:06 Taylor's 50-page prompt and metacognitive strategies
01:30:01 Agentic AI and why YOU are still the responsible party
01:35:12 Closing thoughts: read the document; understand the tech

LINKS

Panel 1 with Matthew Harvey Sanders, Dr. Brett Robinson, Fr. Jean Gové:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P6SYsm_kto

Leonine Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies:
https://leonum.catholic.edu/

Loyola Press:
https://www.loyolapress.com/

Fr. Philip Larrey's Artificial Humanity:
https://philiplarrey.com/publications/artificial-humanity/

The Rome Call for AI Ethics:
https://www.romecall.org/

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