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In anticipation of Labor Day, the bishops of the United States (USCCB) released a statement on artificial intelligence, titled: “Promoting the Dignity of Workers in the Rise of AI.”
Written by Archishop Borys Gudziak, the Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the statement says that “as followers of Christ, we believe that technology should enrich the sacredness and dignity of human labor.”
Archbishop Gudziak is the archbishop of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
The bishops' statement comes, of course, at a time when workplace use of artificial intelligence has rapidly increased. In fact, a recent Gallup poll found, “In the past two years, the percentage of U.S. employees who say they have used AI in their role a few times a year or more has nearly doubled, from 21% to 40%.”
Archbishop Gudziak acknowledges that there are many ways that AI benefits society, hypothesizing that the technology could perhaps aid in the development of new vaccines and medicine.
That said, he emphasizes that “this should never happen at the expense of human dignity.”
Human work, he recalled, is a form of participation in God’s creation. We need to be careful to keep a human presence in roles that require compassion or careful discernment, such as medical evaluation.
The archbishop also acknowledges that AI could threaten jobs, especially for the vulnerable.
While the Gallup poll reports that the percentage of people who are worried AI will take their jobs has not increased in the last two years, the prelate echoes the words of Pope Leo XIV and urges people to approach the use of AI with “responsibility and discernment.”
A pope for this time
The statement highlights the parallels between the rise of AI and the Industrial Revolution. It points out that the previous Pope Leo (the 13th) addressed in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum how some of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution were “a troubling gap in wealth and power, deepening inequality, and fueling social instability.”
Today, in the era of our current Holy Father, who chose the name Leo precisely because of the way AI parallels the Industrial Revolution, we have the opportunity, he says, to learn from the past.
The risks associated with the rapid integration of AI into the workplace are complicated, the statement acknowledged.
Even when AI does not replace workers, its use could “reduce them to rigid and repetitive tasks and erode their ability to carry out creative or complex work independently.”
St. Joseph's help
Archbishop Godziak points towards a letter written from the U.S. Bishops to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives this past June. In it, the bishops ask for a regulatory framework around AI that considers the dignity of the human person, care for the poor, family life, respect for the truth, warfare, the environment, and more.
They noted they are writing not as technical experts, but as “pastors entrusted with concern for the life and dignity of the human person and the common good.”
The Labor Day statement concludes by encouraging everyone to look to St. Joseph “who modeled dignity, diligence, and care through his daily labor and love of family.”
“Let us commit ourselves,” it recommends, “through prayer and action, to building a future in which every worker finds dignity, security, and purpose. Saint Joseph the Worker, pray for us!”
