President Donald Trump said Saturday he intends to form an “AI Force,” comparing it to Space Force, which was established during his first term.
“To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI “Czar” — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” he wrote on Truth Social.
In an earlier post, Trump asked the public to weigh in on a new name for artificial intelligence, suggesting “Superior Intelligence,” “Extreme Intelligence” or “Supreme Intelligence” as alternatives.
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This comes as religious leaders and ethicists grapple with the technology’s implications for humanity.
The debate over AI’s rapid development extends beyond its capabilities and economic potential to questions of human dignity, moral responsibility and whether society can establish meaningful limits on the technology.
Grant Kaplan, a professor of theology at Saint Louis University, told Straight Arrow News that the Catholic Church’s approach to AI offers a framework for considering those questions.
“The notion that, well, this is just a tool, and it can be used for ill or good — that’s very naive if you don’t understand the way the tool is made,” Kaplan said.
Pope’s message centers on human dignity
The questions Kaplan raises echo concerns Pope Leo XIV addressed during his general audience Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square. Speaking about human relationships and the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, Leo warned that the growing use of artificial intelligence can make relationships less personal and create a risk of people delegating decisions to algorithms that should be left to human conscience.
“Our understanding of human community is based on the foundation of the dignity of the human person,” Leo said.
The pope said society should move beyond an individualistic mindset and embrace greater responsibility and participation in building a more humane and just world.
“Social relationships are enriched with real substance and personal depth,” Leo said. “They likewise contribute to the fulfillment of each human person and the development of society.”
As Straight Arrow first reported in May, the pope released his first encyclical, “Magnifica humanitas,” or “The Greatness of Humanity,” addressing the need to safeguard human beings in an increasingly digital world.
An encyclical is a papal letter that provides moral guidance or addresses issues affecting the Catholic Church and society.
Kaplan said the document offers a measured, comprehensive view of AI and large language models, while challenging the assumption that technological progress is inevitable.
He said people often embrace what he described as “tech optimism” and “tech inevitabilism” — the belief that new technology will improve society and that its adoption cannot be stopped.
But history offers examples of technologies that were developed and then left unused or adopted only after significant delays, Kaplan said, pointing to nuclear power and medieval writing technologies.
The pope’s message, Kaplan said, encourages people to consider not just what technology can do, but whether and how it should be used.
AI raises questions about authenticity and human identity
Kaplan said AI’s ability to replicate intellectual and creative work raises questions about what distinguishes human beings from machines.
Those concerns extend to religious institutions, where the use of AI to write sermons could raise questions about authenticity, reflection and personal responsibility.
Kaplan pointed to reports that the pope has discouraged clergy from relying on AI to prepare homilies, saying religious leaders are expected to engage personally with sacred texts.
“If they’re abandoning reflection and just putting a prompt into AI, it doesn’t reflect well on their ethical standards,” Kaplan said.
He compared the practice to plagiarism, arguing that delegating spiritual reflection to a machine could undermine the responsibility clergy have to their congregations.
The concerns are not limited to religion. Kaplan said AI’s ability to produce writing, art and other forms of intellectual work could make it increasingly difficult to distinguish human-created content from machine-generated material.
“That’s the real question of what human dignity looks like if we can’t even be sure whether a poem is written by a computer or a human,” he said.
Kaplan questions whether AI’s growth is inevitable
Kaplan also challenged the assumption that society must embrace AI simply because the technology exists.
He said major investors have poured money into AI companies, creating incentives to push development forward even as questions remain about safety and the consequences for workers.
The prospect of AI replacing jobs is a particular concern, Kaplan said, especially when companies have not clearly explained what displaced workers will do next.
He questioned whether the economic gains from automation will outweigh the effects on workers and communities, drawing comparisons to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt.
Kaplan said past economic transitions show that workers cannot always easily relocate or find comparable employment when industries disappear.
The professor also raised concerns about the pace of AI development and whether companies are taking sufficient time to consider potential consequences.
AI regulation debate intensifies
The concerns raised by Kaplan come as lawmakers and technology leaders debate how to regulate AI without undermining U.S. competitiveness.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said last week that Congress should establish safeguards to prevent AI from advancing beyond human control while protecting the United States’ technological advantage over China.
Johnson has called for a meeting with leading AI companies to discuss potential regulation.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has also called for a slower pace of AI development, warning that safety measures need to keep up with increasingly powerful systems.
Kaplan said the Catholic Church’s emphasis on ethical reflection is relevant to that debate, though he questioned whether international cooperation can succeed as major powers pull back from global agreements.
He said the church’s warning that technology is not always neutral offers a useful starting point for discussions about AI’s future.
Rather than assuming every new technology must be adopted, Kaplan said, society should consider its design, consequences and whether its benefits justify the risks.
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