Pope Leo
November 27, 2025
A photo taken on September 1, 2025 shows the letters “AI”, which stands for “artificial intelligence”, on a laptop screen (R) next to the ChatGPT application logo on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP)
Written by Chinarong Montienbishengchai
His message echoed the observations of Thai scholar Dr. Seri Phongpit, who said AI has ushered the world into an era where it is almost impossible to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Speaking online to more than 15,000 young people gathered at the National Catholic Youth Event in Indianapolis on November 21, the Pope encouraged young people to deepen their friendship with Jesus Christ and to use digital tools in ways that strengthen, not weaken, their humanity.
“Be careful that the use of AI does not limit true human growth,” he said. “Use it in such a way that even if it disappeared tomorrow, you would still know how to think, create, and act for yourself. Remember: your unique gift to the world will never be replaced by AI.”
While the pope focused on moral and spiritual formation, Dr. Seri Phongpit, an independent scholar and founder of the Institute for Learning for Life and Society in Bangkok, offered a broader social critique of AI’s growing influence.
In a review on LiCAS News on November 25, he described the AI era as one in which “truth and falsehood are so closely intertwined that it is almost impossible to distinguish between them.”
According to Dr. Seri, the transition from the information age to the AI age represents a profound transformation of power. Information is used to empower editors, institutions, or states, but now algorithms determine what people see, believe, and fear.
“Algorithms have replaced humans as truth choosers,” he writes. “Editors used to filter the news. Now, algorithms learn from our fear, anger, and personal behavior. They choose what we should know and what we shouldn’t know.”
He argues that data is no longer just content, but a predictive tool that can predict and influence human behavior. He said modern systems “know what we’re going to buy next, who we’re going to vote for, and when we’re losing hope or ready to join the digital mob.”
Dr. Seri likens today’s AI-driven persuasion to a new form of sophistry. While the ancient sophists relied on rhetoric to construct artificial truths, AI can now generate “millions of personalized logics a day” tailored to the emotions and vulnerabilities of specific individuals.
As a result, he said, society is filled with a “simulated reality” that feels completely authentic to those who consume it.
This fragmented digital environment creates what he calls “digital hegemony.” It is a subtle and far-reaching form of influence that is more powerful than traditional controls embedded in institutions.
“People no longer see the world the same way,” he noted. “Each person lives in a personal reality created by an algorithm.”
Dr Seri warns that Thailand is particularly vulnerable due to weaknesses in education, technological literacy and cultural structures.
Rote learning discourages questioning. Powerful kinship networks can quickly become polarized digital cliques. Limited digital awareness leaves society susceptible to fear-based misinformation and emotional manipulation.
However, both Pope Leo and Dr. Seri point to solutions based on human responsibility and regeneration.
The Pope emphasized education, urging young people to develop critical minds and strong moral foundations so that technology becomes a tool of wisdom rather than dependence.
He reminded us that true growth comes from developing character, compassion, and inner freedom.
Dr. Seri similarly calls for “digital organic intellectuals,” everyday thinkers rooted in community who can navigate technology without being dominated by it.
He outlines three responses to Thai society. One is the development of digital citizenship, which recognizes how online environments shape perceptions. Build a community-based “critical mass” that can resist manipulation. And to foster new learning spaces where people ask deep questions, connect knowledge with lived experience, and “think for themselves, not for algorithms.”
The real threat from AI, he argues, is not the technology itself, but its ability to “dominate people’s thinking without them even realizing it.” But he believes these same times offer an opportunity to strengthen grassroots wisdom.
“The civilizational struggle of our time is the struggle of humanity in a world where data and algorithms seek to organize our lives on our behalf,” Dr. Seri writes.
Both Pope Leo and Dr. Seri highlighted concerns about how rapidly developing artificial intelligence will affect human freedoms, including freedom of thought, conscience and access to truth.–LiCAS.News
