Vatican warns that AI ‘deepfakes’ threaten the human experience

Cardinal Jose Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, on Thursday criticized AI deepfakes as a threat to human encounter.

Speaking at a conference on AI in Rome on May 21, Mendonça warned of the dangers of AI, saying that it can “have painful consequences on the destiny of individuals.”

“When a deepfake lends a personʼs face to words they have never spoken … it is the very grammar of the human encounter that is altered,” Mendonça said. “Technology that exploits our need for relationship … can not only have painful consequences on the destiny of individuals, but it can also damage the social, cultural, and political fabric of societies.”

Preserving humanity in the age of AI

Coming a few days before of the release of Pope Leo XIVʼs Magnifica Humanitas, which will treat moral and social questions related to AI, the theme of the conference was “Preserving Human Voices and Faces.”

Organized by the Dicastery for Communication and held at the Pontifical Urban University, the conference brought together professors, journalists, and engineers who offered insights into the risks AI poses to authentic human experiences.

Mendonça, citing the popeʼs message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, clarified that the goal “lies not in stopping digital innovation but in guiding it.”

Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, added: “The greatest danger consists in passively accepting the idea that knowledge no longer belongs to us.”

Magnifica Humanitas: Keeping the human at the center

Some of the conference panelists expressed their hopes for Leoʼs upcoming encyclical on AI.

One of those was Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary of the Section of Culture of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. Speaking to EWTN News on the sidelines, Tighe gave his impressions about what the pope intends to contribute with this document.

“I think the pope is doing two things: First, he will be offering perspectives that enable people to reflect and think critically about AI and its role in society. Second, he is initiating a dialogue,” Tighe told EWTN News. “He wants to create an environment where all the various people who have a part in the development of AI are attentive to keeping the human at the center.”