Cardinal Michael Czerny urges care for workers amid AI race

Cardinal Michael Czerny and Bishop Oscar Cantú called on the artificial intelligence industry to prioritize human dignity over profits or winning the technological race. During an interview on EWTN News In Depth on Sept. 25, Czerny, who leads the Vatican’s Commission on AI, and Cantú, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Task Force on Preserving Human Dignity, discussed how AI might reshape the workforce.

Czerny stated that Catholic social teaching requires companies, investors, and management to care for workers rather than treating them as tools for production or cogs in a machine. He urged industry leaders to protect the dignity of employees instead of pursuing profit at their expense. Regarding fears of job losses, Czerny suggested the focus should shift from whether jobs will disappear to how AI can help create more meaningful work.

The task force led by Cantú was formed following Pope Leo XIV’s call for cooperation in the document Magnifica Humanitas. This discussion occurred two days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei requested international standards from the U.N. Security Council to manage risks from rapid AI development.