The Fourth Industrial Revolution is not waiting for us to resolve South Africa's inequalities before arriving. It is already here, and it will either compound those inequalities or challenge them, depending on the choices we make now.

In an insightful and challenging encyclical letter, Pope Leo XIV has called on humanity to consider the potential effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and condemned a "culture of power", challenging the military industry and those waging war.

This is the first encyclical of the America-born Pontiff since his election on 8 May 2025, and it could prove to be one of the most important Catholic social teaching documents in the past 100 years. The document, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), was signed on the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's watershed encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) in 1891. In that encyclical, Leo XIII addressed the changing epoch amid the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIV has chosen to address another epochal shift: the digital revolution.

Using artificial intelligence as a starting point, Leo addresses a wide range of contemporary crises, including war, the abuse of power, modern slavery, wealth inequality, the erosion of democracy and the devaluation of human capacities. He asks everyone to reflect on how the world is being transformed and what this means for the dignity of the human person.

The pope says that "technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to...