Pope Leo XIV's encyclical positions art as bulwark against AI-driven creative atrophy

Pope Leo XIV's encyclical 'Magnifica humanitas', signed on 15 May 2026, addresses the relationship between art and artificial intelligence, arguing that creativity is atrophying not through prohibition but through delegation to machines. The document calls for 'fasting from AI' to preserve human judgment and creativity. It equates software developers with artists, asserting that code is a cultural act expressing a vision of humanity. The encyclical distinguishes AI from art: machines can imitate but do not understand love, silence, or interior growth. Art, by contrast, emerges from an encounter with reality, carrying biography, wound, and desire. The Pope warns that the creative industry risks being dismantled and replaced by 'Powered by AI' labels, turning people into consumers of unthought thoughts and anonymous products without authorship or love. He cites Beethoven's Ninth, Picasso's Guernica, and Spielberg's Schindler's List as prophetic works that resist normalization of evil. The encyclical echoes Pope Francis's 'Dilexit nos', which stated that poetry and love are necessary to save the human in the age of AI. The text was written by Antonio Spadaro and published on Artribune. It appears alongside the Venice Biennale exhibition 'In Minor Keys' by Koyo Kouoh, which the article suggests points in a similar direction—toward emotional, sensory, subjective experience irreducible to productive acceleration.