Vatican certifies Pope Leo XIV's anti-AI encyclical as human-authored after detection controversy

Vatican Uses AI-Detector to Show AI Bros Pope's Anti-AI Encyclical Isn't AI-Generated

When Pope Leo XIV issued Magnifica Humanitas, his 43,000-word encyclical calling for people to maintain and protect human dignity in the face of artificial intelligence, some in the AI world started to allege that the head of the Catholic Church used AI to write the document, accusing him of hypocrisy. While the Vatican never really acknowledged the allegations, it has since gone out of its way to discredit them. According to The Guardian, Magnifica Humanitas has been officially certified as human-authored. A lot of this whole controversy just comes down to who you feel like you can trust. In one corner are the AI evangelists, who have decided to put their trust in AI detection systems (which are themselves AI-powered). Pangram Labs has become the biggest name in this space, in part because of its on-call status on X, where any user can tag the company on a post and get an analysis as to whether it is AI-generated or not. Panagram Labs flagged a number of posts made to the official X account of Pope Leo XIV as likely being written by AI. An analysis of the full encyclical by the company suggested that while the majority of it seems to be human-authored, some paragraphs may contain AI-generated text. Linch Zhang, an AI researcher, also wrote an in-depth look at the document and concluded that some of the text is likely to be AI-authored -- though was careful to suggest that it's more likely Vatican officials used AI assistance for portions of the paper than Pope Leo himself. And while the palace/papal intrigue of some staffer sneaking in AI-generated text would make for a lower-stakes Conclave follow-up, it seems the Vatican is pouring cold water on that idea. Per The Guardian, the church has gone through the trouble of having the entire encyclical verified as human-authored by Proudly Human, a company that certifies works as being made by real people without AI. To get that certification, the church reportedly submitted a collection of writings and speeches made by the pope. Those seem to be used as a sort of control group, and the encyclical is tested against it to verify its authenticity. The process includes submitting to an ID check and signing a verification that AI was not used for a first draft and did not write any sentences or paragraphs of the finished product. How exactly does one analyze and compare so many texts? You're never going to believe this, but with AI. Proudly Human reportedly uses several different tools to look at nuances in writing and grammar choices between the texts. The company then uses its own averaging algorithm to determine authenticity. Its verdict on Magnifica Humanitas: purely human. So really, it comes down to whose process and motivations you trust. Not that this has ever stopped a Pope from doing wrong in the past, but he is the only one in this situation with the threat of eternal damnation actively hanging over his head should he be lying, so one would assume that'd be a pretty solid motivator to be honest about the situation.

Man of his word: Pope Leo speeches declared human-authored by Australian AI detection tool

Maps of Hope has been certified by Proudly Human, a company led by former chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel A collection of speeches and writings by Pope Leo XIV has been certified as human-authored less than two months after Leo declared artificial intelligence the greatest threat to humanity. Proudly Human, the Australian company spearheaded by Australia's former chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, undertook a review of a collection of writings and speeches by the Pope, in collaboration with the publisher, the Australian Catholic University and cardinals in the Vatican. Maps of Hope was published in the same week in May that Leo's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence and the risks of the power of the technology being concentrated in the hands of a few. In the encyclical, Leo said AI should be prevented "from dominating humanity," adding that the technology should be "human-friendly", accessible to all and opened to discussion and debate. Finkel told Guardian Australia he had a "great deal of confidence" going into the Maps of Hope process that Leo's speeches would be written by a human, and within a day, Proudly Human had certified the collection as human-created. The process typically requires authors or their representatives to sign up to the site, go through an ID check, and sign a declaration that they are operating within minimum standards: AI can't be used to write the first draft, or write sentences and paragraphs. From there, Proudly Human uses AI detection tools that Finkel said "focus on different nuances" in writing and grammar. "We use a suite of four or five of them and our own averaging algorithm, and we test that suite every night to make sure that they're really continuously fit for purpose," he said. "In this case, the book came through, as you would expect, is basically purely human." The terms and conditions for the service outline that certifications are made "on the basis of information" provided and the checks performed, and the certifications can be refused or revoked if found to misrepresent authorship or "fall outside our published standards". Finkel's hope is that in lieu of government regulation forcing people to disclose when something is created by AI, people can have information available through the trust mark that what they're reading was written by a human. "They deserve to know. I actually think it's a fundamental right [for] human beings have," he said - particularly when it came to religious figures. "If you're sitting in a church and you're expecting that that is the genuine expertise, religious wisdom, of the priest who's delivering the sermon," he said. "The heart of what it is to be human is to engage with other people and to exchange ideas and exchange creative ideas." The president and vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Prof Zlato Skrbis, said in a statement that given there was so much being generated so quickly, it was valuable to "say with confidence that a work is a product of human reflection and judgment".