While use of Artificial Intelligence accelerates, moral and philosophical understanding of its risks to human dignity is urgently needed.
This landmark new book gathers an array of outstanding Catholic writers from around the world who critique the expanding impact of AI on human dignity. How can the very meaning of human language, reason, relationships, and virtue be appreciated and protected when the artifice of machines is ascendant?
The authors are prominent writers in philosophy, theology, history, psychology, public policy, and advocacy. Building on issues outlined in Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and further Catholic teaching, this volume highlights a wide variety of perspectives that provide a rigorous, faith-informed critique of AI’s dangers.
Published by the Human Life Foundation.
Edited by Christopher M. Reilly, Th.D. and Jason M. Morgan, Ph.D.
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The title is a tribute to C. S. Lewis’ classic 1943 book The Abolition of Man, in which Lewis warned of serious consequences of our dependence on technology: deteriorating capability of moral judgments, control by an elite class of technocrats, and reduction of humanity to a passive, conditioned state.
Topics Under Discussion
Personhood and consciousness with AI
AI as the object and encouragement of idolatry
AI and worsening attitudes toward disabilities, vulnerability, and dependency
The heart as the symbol of unity in the person, and its absence in AI
How AI undermines the sacred gifts of intellect and being
AI as the epitome of power in liberalism
The connection between abortion, euthanasia, and the spread of chatbots
Role of AI in harming self-images and sense of dignity among women
Why domination is essential to AI
How AI facilitates and encourages war and military violence
Opposition of AI enthusiasts to the dignity of the human body
AI-conditioned damage to the social, intellectual, and moral development of children
The final substitution of technical humanity by inhuman technology
The erosion of memory with AI and the resulting loss of meaning
AI and the decline of reverence as a virtue
Contrast between the virtue of hope and the orientation of AI-fueled ideologies
Reflections on the death of a teenager after interacting with a chatbot
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