Vatican and AI: Suspicions of AI Use in Writing Encyclical on Technology

The encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, published by the Vatican, is the first official papal document addressing the impact of artificial intelligence on society. However, its release has raised questions about the possible use of AI in drafting the text. Researcher Lynch Zhang found that up to 62% of the first chapter shows signs of AI generation, according to Pangram’s analysis.

Experts note that AI detectors are imperfect: different systems may yield conflicting results, and the false-positive rate is around 0.01%. Nonetheless, Pangram is considered one of the most reliable tools in this field. Notably, previous encyclicals, including those by Pope Francis, lacked such markers and were unanimously classified as human-written.

The document has drawn particular attention as Pope Leo XIV presented it alongside Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, the company developing AI models. The Vatican has not yet commented on the analysis results. The encyclical addresses ethical aspects of AI development, including algorithmic transparency and the social responsibility of tech companies.