Vatican's Call for Human-Centered AI Echoes AFL-CIO Worker Principles

AFL-CIO Technology Institute Welcomes Pope Leo XIV’s Historic Message on the Future of Work

WASHINGTON — Following the release of Pope Leo XIV’s historic encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), the AFL-CIO Technology Institute affirms the shared moral imperative to ensure that innovation uplifts the humanity and dignity of work and working people.

The new encyclical deliberately mirrors the fundamental defense of workers’ rights first established by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. Just as the landmark Rerum Novarum sought to protect workers from the abuses of the Industrial Revolution, Leo XIV’s mandate addresses the AI upheaval of today. It delves deeply into the danger that technology will make work worse, or replace workers altogether, and insists on a different vision of the future that will “enable each person to live with dignity” through their own work. It calls for a transformative global commitment to solidarity in managing technological change, where “decisions regarding data, algorithms, platforms and artificial intelligence take into account not only the immediate benefit for a few, but also the impact on all peoples and on future generations.”

"Pope Leo XIV reminds us that the goal of innovation must always be to support human dignity and expand human potential," said Lauren McFerran, Executive Director of the AFL-CIO Tech Institute. "This historic encyclical is a call to action – we can no longer abdicate our responsibility to exercise responsible oversight over AI, in the workplace or anywhere else. Instead, we must insist on a future where technology makes our jobs safer and better, and where dignified and meaningful work continues to be ‘a fundamental dimension of the human experience.’”  

Through the Workers First Initiative on AI, the AFL-CIO is advancing a comprehensive agenda grounded in the same foundational goal as the encyclical: to ensure that “innovation can serve as an ally of safer, more creative and dignified work.” These principles include:

• Strengthening labor rights and broadening opportunities for collective bargaining.
• Advancing guardrails against harmful uses of AI in the workplace.
• Supporting and promoting copyright and intellectual property protections.
• Developing a worker-centered workforce development and training system.
• Institutionalizing worker voice within AI research and development (R&D).
• Requiring transparency and accountability in AI applications.
• Modeling best practices for AI use with government procurement.
• Protecting workers’ civil rights and upholding democratic integrity.

By centering worker expertise in the development and deployment of new technologies, the AFL-CIO Tech Institute strives to ensure that humans are the future of work.

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The AFL-CIO Tech Institute works at the intersection of technological innovation in the workplace, centering worker knowledge, expertise, and interests in our modern innovation-based economy and in public services, with the goal of ensuring that technological change benefits everyone.