How the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas offers a template for individuals to meet the AI moment

教宗的《宏伟人性》（Magnifica Humanitas）如何为个人应对人工智能时代提供蓝图

Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence includes a statement that warrants serious attention from technologists and policymakers: “Technology is never neutral.” Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”) is a clarion call to all people to act with courage and solidarity as we enter an age already being transformed by artificial intelligence, the greatest change in human life since the Industrial Revolution. 教宗利奥十四世关于人工智能的最新通谕中包含了一项值得技术专家和政策制定者高度关注的声明：“技术绝非中立。”《宏伟人性》（Magnifica Humanitas）向所有人发出号召，呼吁我们在进入这个已被人工智能改变的时代时，要以勇气和团结行事。这是自工业革命以来人类生活中最重大的变革。

As the pope says, the choice before us—the choice AI presents—is one between the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of our common humanity. In the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, humans sought to build a massive structure that reached all the way to Heaven, only to have their project thwarted when God made those involved unable to understand one another. It was a pursuit fixated on relentless growth, divorced from any concern about God’s commandments or the human cost. It resulted in failure and atomization. 正如教宗所言，摆在我们面前的选择——即人工智能带来的选择——是在“巴别塔”与“重建共同人性”之间做出抉择。在《圣经》关于巴别塔的故事中，人类试图建造一座直通天堂的宏伟建筑，但当上帝使参与者无法相互理解时，这一计划便告破产。那是一种执着于无休止增长的追求，脱离了对上帝诫命或人类代价的任何考量，最终导致了失败与分崩离析。

The Book of Nehemiah, however, offers a contrasting narrative, in which the rebuilding of Jerusalem after a period of violence and displacement becomes an opportunity for humanity to show its collaborative resilience. As the encyclical puts it, “The city is reborn, not through the initiative of one man, but through the shared responsibility of all: men, women, priests, artisans, heads of households and young people all play a part. It is an undertaking with God at the center, which rebuilds relationships before rebuilding with stones.” 然而，《尼希米记》提供了一个截然不同的叙事：在经历了一段暴力与流离失所的时期后，耶路撒冷的重建成为了人类展现协作韧性的契机。正如通谕中所述：“城市的重生并非源于个人的倡议，而是源于所有人的共同责任：男人、女人、祭司、工匠、户主和年轻人都在其中发挥了作用。这是一项以神为中心的事业，在用石头重建之前，先重建了人与人之间的关系。”

Is there any question which road we are currently barreling down? And can there be any doubt which we would do well to walk together? We are both Catholics, members of religious communities and longtime advocates within the movement for socially responsible investment. Of particular interest to us and that movement is Pope Leo’s point that AI is not some force of nature or hyperrational, ineffable entity. Instead, he reminds us, AI is ultimately another commercial product, one emerging at a point in history when excessive power over commerce and the wider society has amassed in a vanishingly small number of hands. 我们目前正奔向哪条道路，这还有疑问吗？我们应当共同走哪条路，这还有怀疑吗？我们两人都是天主教徒，是宗教团体的成员，也是社会责任投资运动的长期倡导者。我们和该运动特别关注的是教宗利奥提出的观点：人工智能并非某种自然力量或超理性、不可言说的实体。相反，他提醒我们，人工智能归根结底是另一种商业产品，它出现在历史的一个节点上，此时对商业和更广泛社会的过度权力已集中在极少数人手中。

It’s a powerful message. It’s also one that institutional investors have been acting on for years. This encyclical doesn’t break new ground so much as ratify a governance effort that’s already underway, led not by states or international bodies but by shareholders. When governments fail to meaningfully regulate, and corporations cannot be trusted to do what is beneficial beyond their own bottom line, people in society still have the power to set us on the right path, and indeed have the duty to do so. 这是一个强有力的信息。这也是机构投资者多年来一直在践行的准则。这份通谕与其说是开辟了新领域，不如说是对一项已经在进行中的治理工作的认可——这项工作并非由国家或国际机构领导，而是由股东推动。当政府未能进行有效的监管，且不能指望企业在自身利益之外做出有益于社会的事情时，社会中的人们依然有权引导我们走上正确的道路，事实上，我们也有义务这样做。

Around the world, AI systems are being deployed at scale with remarkably little institutional oversight. There is no AI safety board. The US Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over unfair practices but limited authority over algorithmic design. The National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes guidance that most companies ignore. The EU AI Act is partially in force but addresses only a sliver of the deployment surface. Institutional investors have stepped into this vacuum. 在世界各地，人工智能系统正以极大的规模被部署，却几乎没有受到什么制度性的监督。目前还没有人工智能安全委员会。美国联邦贸易委员会对不公平行为拥有管辖权，但对算法设计的权力有限。美国国家标准与技术研究院发布的指导意见被大多数公司所忽视。《欧盟人工智能法案》虽已部分生效，但仅涵盖了部署领域的一小部分。机构投资者已经填补了这一真空。

Coalitions including the membership of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, representing investors managing over $400 billion in assets, have spent the past several proxy seasons filing resolutions demanding transparency, risk assessment, and accountability around AI deployment. Secular institutional investors have joined them, treating AI governance failures as material business risks. Shareholders have called tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Palantir, and Uber to account and demanded that AI not be used for acts of violence or other violations of human rights. 包括“跨宗教企业责任中心”（Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility）成员在内的联盟，代表着管理超过4000亿美元资产的投资者，在过去几个代理投票季中提交了多项决议，要求在人工智能部署方面实现透明度、风险评估和问责制。世俗机构投资者也加入了他们的行列，将人工智能治理的失败视为实质性的商业风险。股东们已要求包括Alphabet、亚马逊、英伟达、Palantir和优步在内的科技巨头承担责任，并要求人工智能不得被用于暴力行为或其他侵犯人权的行为。

The importance of this aspect of corporate governance was highlighted tragically in the opening hours of the war against Iran, when AI was used to help identify targets for thousands of missile strikes that killed hundreds of people. Investors have also challenged executives at CVS and UnitedHealth Group to ensure that AI not be used to undermine the well-being of patients and quality of health care across the United States. At companies including Meta and Microsoft, shareholders have decried the environmental impact of AI data centers, which consume vast amounts of energy and precious water resources, and in turn can emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. 公司治理这一层面的重要性在针对伊朗战争的最初几个小时里得到了悲剧性的凸显，当时人工智能被用于帮助识别数千次导弹袭击的目标，导致数百人死亡。投资者还向CVS和联合健康集团（UnitedHealth Group）的高管提出质疑，以确保人工智能不会被用于损害美国患者的福祉和医疗保健质量。在Meta和微软等公司，股东们谴责了人工智能数据中心对环境的影响，这些中心消耗了大量的能源和宝贵的水资源，进而可能排放大量的温室气体。

Within creative industries, investors have challenged the leadership at companies like Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. to demand transparency about the ways they are using AI and to defend the inimitable human element in storytelling. Soon, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grok all set to enter the public markets, we will be able to exert similar influence over what are now all privately held entities. These actions by concerned investors not only call out misdeeds but hold fast to an immutable truth: that it is wrong to use technology to kill, harm, or oppress people. 在创意产业中，投资者向迪士尼、Netflix和华纳兄弟等公司的领导层提出挑战，要求其在使用人工智能的方式上保持透明，并捍卫叙事中不可模仿的人性元素。不久之后，随着OpenAI、Anthropic和Grok都准备进入公开市场，我们将能够对这些目前均为私有的实体施加类似的影响。这些忧心忡忡的投资者的行动不仅揭露了不当行为，还坚守着一个永恒的真理：利用技术去杀戮、伤害或压迫他人是错误的。

Every human being has a right to safe and effective health care and the opportunity to earn a dignified living. The stories we tell each other matter and require the human creative spark. Investor advocates hail from a range of faith traditions. Some have no formal religious faith. Yet in their informed and tenacious advocacy, all these people echo the calls embedded within Pope Leo’s encyclical and act on its declaration that “it is essential that the use of AI, especially when it touches on public goods and fundamental rights, be guided by clear criteria and effective oversight.” 每个人都有权获得安全有效的医疗保健，并有机会过上有尊严的生活。我们讲述的故事至关重要，需要人类创造力的火花。投资者倡导者来自各种不同的信仰传统，有些人则没有正式的宗教信仰。然而，在他们知情且坚韧的倡导中，所有这些人都在呼应教宗利奥通谕中所包含的呼吁，并践行其声明：“至关重要的是，人工智能的使用，特别是当它涉及公共利益和基本权利时，必须以明确的标准和有效的监督为指导。”

Encyclicals mark time. A century from now, how will we be remembered for how we met this moment? Will we be seen as having been too timid or shortsighted to prevent a small group of unfathomably wealthy and self-interested people from seizing ever greater control over the human family’s shared destiny? Or will the years ahead be remembered as a turning point that helped us rebuild our common humanity? Let this be a time when people of good will and diver 通谕是时代的里程碑。一个世纪后，我们将因如何应对这一时刻而被后人铭记？我们会被视为因过于胆怯或短视，而未能阻止一小群极其富有且自私的人攫取对人类大家庭共同命运的更大控制权吗？还是说，未来的岁月将被铭记为一个转折点，帮助我们重建了共同的人性？愿这是一个让善意的人们与多元……（注：原文此处中断）