AI’s danger: humans believing we’re machines

What does it mean to be fully human in an era where artificial intelligence increasingly promises to simulate, enhance, and even surpass human capabilities?

This pressing question brought over 70 of us together to Cardus Ottawa in mid-October for an event co-hosted by Jérôme Lejeune School and the Albacete Forum. It was evident that we couldn’t fruitfully answer these large questions from scratch. There is a need for concrete witnesses to help us begin, to accompany us as we go deeper into the ineradicable questions of the human heart.

One of them is Pope Leo XIV, particularly through his contribution through the encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. The other is Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, the late Puerto Rican priest, theologian, and scientist whose exceptional intelligence and spiritual depth was matched by his infectious humour, deep humanity, and passion for the mystery of human existence.

Advertisement

Although artificial intelligence served as the contemporary backdrop for the evening, the deeper subject was the human person, namely the irreducible mystery of human existence and the opportunity to discover one's identity through an encounter with another.

For those who knew Lorenzo Albacete, who died in 2014, his significance cannot be reduced to a collection of theological ideas. His brilliance, extensive scientific background, and extraordinary ability to engage contemporary culture were inextricably linked to the manner in which he interacted with people.

Albacete was comfortable among scientists, philosophers, journalists, theologians, and ordinary people seeking meaning. However, what distinguished him was his capacity to awaken in others a renewed interest in their own humanity.

For Albacete, Christianity was not primarily an ethical system, an ideology, or a series of propositions to be defended. It was the announcement of an event: the entry of the Mystery into human history that fosters an integral human development.

His theological vision was deeply influenced by his friendship with St. John Paul II and his encounter with the charism of Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. Central to that vision was the conviction that the human heart, with its infinite desire for truth, beauty, justice, love, and happiness, cannot be adequately explained by any purely functional account of the person.

Humanity is not something we create through our achievements. It is something given, received, and ultimately something discovered in relationship with Jesus Christ.

Advertisement

Magnifica Humanitas challenges a technological culture that is increasingly inclined to measure human worth based upon productivity, efficiency, computational power, and technical achievement. It insists that technological progress must remain directed toward the dignity of the person and the common good.

If intelligence can be simulated, if information can be generated instantaneously, and if machines can reproduce increasingly sophisticated forms of human expression, what remains unique about the human person?

For Albacete, the answer would require looking beyond intelligence viewed simply as the capacity to process information or solve problems. Human existence is characterized by an openness to the infinite. Even suffering, weakness, and dependence—experiences that technological culture often views primarily as problems to be eliminated—reveal something essential about the mystery of being human.

In this light, the most profound question raised by artificial intelligence is not whether machines will become more like human beings. It is whether human beings will increasingly perceive themselves as machines.

Albacete's life and thought resist precisely such a reduction.

During the evening’s discussion, the panelists shared anecdotes and insights from their reading of the encyclical and their experience of friendship with Msgr. Albacete. At the core of each participant’s contribution was the impact of Albacete’s friendship and the deep impression it made on the way they engaged the text.

For Albacete, the Christian claim was an experience of a renewed humanity that made all of reality personally present, accessible, and supremely interesting. The panelists’ friendship with Albacete taught them not be afraid of their desires and questions, but instead to live those more deeply in communion with Christ and the Church.

Advertisement

The significance of the Ottawa gathering was the opportunity to encounter, through Albacete's witness, a more expansive understanding of their own humanity, which we rediscovered together, and which will, surely overflow beyond the bounds of the evening.

Stephen Sanchez is the president of the board of directors of The Albacete Forum, a non-profit founded to preserve and extend the intellectual and spiritual legacy of the late Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete. Additional information is available at www.albaceteforum.org.

A version of this article appeared in the November 08, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "AI’s danger: humans believing we’re machines".