A collection of speeches and writings by Pope Leo XIV has been certified as human-authored by the Australian company Proudly Human, led by former chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel. The certification comes less than two months after Leo declared artificial intelligence the greatest threat to humanity in his first encyclical.
Certification Process
Proudly Human reviewed the collection, titled Maps of Hope, in collaboration with the publisher, the Australian Catholic University, and cardinals in the Vatican. The process required representatives to sign up, undergo an ID check, and declare compliance with minimum standards prohibiting AI use for drafting or writing sentences and paragraphs. The company then used a suite of four to five AI detection tools and an averaging algorithm, tested nightly for fitness.
Dr Finkel expressed confidence that the speeches would be human-written, and within a day, Proudly Human certified the collection as human-created. He stated, “In this case, the book came through, as you would expect, is basically purely human.”
Context and Impact
Maps of Hope was published in the same week in May as Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which warned of AI dangers and the risks of concentrated power. In it, Leo said AI should be prevented “from dominating humanity” and should be “human-friendly,” accessible to all, and open to discussion.
Dr Finkel noted that without government regulation forcing AI disclosure, such certifications allow people to know whether content is human-produced. “They deserve to know. I actually think it’s a fundamental right [for] human beings,” he said, especially for religious figures delivering sermons.
Broader Implications
The president and vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Prof Zlato Skrbis, said in a statement that given the rapid generation of online content, it is valuable to “say with confidence that a work is a product of human reflection and judgment.” The certification terms allow refusal or revocation if misrepresentation is found.
