Human agency paramount in AI-driven world

President Trump just addressed the United Nations and announced changing the name of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Super Intelligence (SI), because calling it artificial made it sound “fake.” 

It’s certainly not fake, but neither is it truly “intelligence.” which is the purview of God, angels and humans. 

The 2025 Vatican document, “Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence,” puts it this way: “The very use of the word ‘intelligence’ in connection to AI can prove misleading, and risks overlooking what it most precious in the human person. In light of this, AI should not be seen as an artificial form of human intelligence, but a product of it.” 

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Evidently, one of the proposed renaming options was “Supreme Intelligence.” Yikes! Idolatry, anyone? Of course, individuals are free to still use the label “AI,” but U.S. diplomats and government operatives have been ordered to make the change, and official U.S. documents will also reflect the rebranding.

Some people suggest pulling the plug on AI altogether because its already-proven harms outweigh whatever benefits it might afford, while others see its usefulness, as long as human beings stay firmly in control and utilize it much more intentionally and sparingly than is being done now. 

I would add that if we want to forge ahead with this brave new world, we should also be very realistic about the gross limitations and flaws of any man-made, computer-based system being given free reign over man. But are “we” really able to influence the direction of this juggernaut? If so, how? We can try to opt for as much non-participation as possible, but AI/SI is embedded in all our everyday tools and interactions, whether we’re aware of it or not.

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One of our Sisters, Sr. Nancy Usselmann, was just invited by the UN (right before Trump addressed it) to participate in a roundtable on AI and Human Development in Rome. The gathering brought together experts from around the world to consider a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human in a world of AI? They explored AI's impact on human relationships, education and human development, and human dignity from the perspective of faith. 

Sr. Nancy was invited to introduce a topic, and spoke about AI, education, and the global agenda. She shared the importance of forming the whole person—mind, will, and heart—and the need to ensure that education in an AI-driven world continues to cultivate human agency, critical thinking, creativity, relationships, discernment, and wonder.

She also introduced the Daughters of St. Paul’s approach of “AI Mindfulness,” which applies a faith lens to AI literacy through awareness, analysis, reflection, and action, and went on to propose five dimensions that should remain at the heart of conversations about human flourishing in an AI age: human agency, dignity, relationships, discernment, and transcendence.Well done, Sr. Nancy. The very terms she used are basically solutions in themselves. And if AI/SI is incompatible with these values? We choose humanity, thank you.

As Pope Leo says in Magnifica Humanitas: “[Artificial intelligences do not] have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. …They do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. Even when these tools are described as capable of ‘learning,’ their way of doing so is different from that of a human person. It is not the experience of those who allow themselves to be shaped by life and grow over time through choices, mistakes, forgiveness and fidelity.”

One of my biggest questions about AI/SI is: Why are the governments of the world pouring trillions into this alleged panacea when it’s already pretty obvious it cannot and will not deliver on its promises, but has caused incredible misery in the forms of unregulated and toxic data centres, addictions, psychosis, broken relationships, massive job losses, reduced instead of increased efficiency and denying worthy insurance claims etc. 

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Why is “machinedom” being allowed to reconstitute and reconfigure whole human ecosystems that have been carefully developed over years and are functioning well enough? Is it just the bottom line or is there something more nefarious going on? What are the ideological motivations of Big Tech? 

Time will tell. But in the meantime, everyone should be informing themselves about the dangers and risks of putting almost everything in the “hands” of inanimate, soulless, questionably programmed, glorified CPUs.

(Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, FSP, is a Daughter of St. Paul. She holds a Masters in Media Literacy Education and studied screenwriting at UCLA. HellBurns.com Twitter: @srhelenaburns #medianuns)

A version of this article appeared in the October 04, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Human agency paramount in AI-driven world".