The Observatory on Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies (OIANT) at UIC Barcelona held the second and final session in its series dedicated to Magnifica humanitas with the round table “AI and humanism: challenges and opportunities following the encyclical”.  Moderated by Dr Esther Jiménez, vice-rector for Students and Sustainability, the session brought together Dr Pep Martorell, an expert in technology strategy, supercomputing and artificial intelligence, and Dr Domènec Melé, a priest with a doctorate in Industrial Engineering, to reflect on the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and the role individuals should play in this new context.

The session followed on from the first lecture in the series, which presented the key ideas of Magnifica humanitas, and extended this framework to a discussion on the changes that artificial intelligence is bringing about in education, work, organisations and society.

In her opening remarks, Dr Esther Jiménez placed the encyclical in context and highlighted the University’s responsibility to address the major challenges of its time, underscoring the need to promote rigorous dialogue between technology and humanism in light of the growing impact of artificial intelligence.

During his contribution, Dr Domènec Melé argued that Magnifica humanitas is not simply a reflection on AI, but a human-centred proposal that places the dignity of the person at its core. As the priest explained, the encyclical addresses issues such as work, family, business, culture and education, and stresses that technological progress is meaningful only if it “contributes to the integral development of the human person”.

Dr Melé warned against reducing individuals to criteria such as productivity, efficiency or functionality, and advocated a conception of the human person grounded in freedom, discernment and inherent dignity. In this sense, he emphasised that artificial intelligence can carry out complex processes but cannot “replace genuinely human dimensions such as moral conscience, subjectivity or responsibility”. He also noted that ethics cannot be programmed as a set of rules or reduced to a calculation of utility. Rather, moral decisions stem from recognising each person’s dignity and their fundamental rights.

Educating people capable of critical thinking

Dr Pep Martorell highlighted that the encyclical is rooted in the tradition of the Church’s social doctrine and avoids both techno-utopianism and rejection of technology. In his view, the debate is not about saying “yes” or “no” to artificial intelligence but about guiding its development towards the common good and ensuring that it remains at the service of people.

He warned that one of the main risks lies not only in job displacement, but also in the potential degradation of human work if individuals are reduced to carrying out what intelligent systems determine. Referring to paragraph 106 of the text, he also pointed out that the pace of technological development may outstrip society’s capacity to respond to its ethical implications – a gap that the encyclical identifies as one of the major challenges of the present time: “It is necessary to slow down technological development if we are not to be morally unprepared”.

Both speakers agreed that the main challenge lies in education. They argued for the need to educate people capable of going beyond strictly technical knowledge, preserving inner freedom and developing critical thinking that enables them to discern, innovate and make responsible decisions in an environment increasingly shaped by algorithms. They also emphasised that Magnifica humanitas is a call to exercise responsible use of artificial intelligence, both on a personal level and within organisations and businesses, always in the service of human dignity and the common good.

In closing, Dr Esther Jiménez summarised the main themes of the discussion with a reflection that captures the spirit of the encyclical: “We must set wisdom against speed, responsibility against power, and dignity against efficiency”. This idea reflects the purpose of the series promoted by the OIANT: to foster rigorous dialogue between technology, ethics and humanism in response to the major challenges of our time.