AI is 'Imago Homo'

Incarnation and dis-Incarnation

Inspired by Pope Leo's encyclical, “Magnificent Humanity”, I've been thinking alot about AI and its limits as a man-made tool. 

In the first reading from May 20, 2026, Saint Paul is about to leave his beloved Ephesians for the last time. Clearly Paul had a deep bond of Christian fellowship with the people. They knew he could communicate from a distance (hence all the letters he wrote) but this was different. This was the last time that he would be alive with them in the flesh and the Ephesians instinctively, desperately embraced him one last time…

At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus:
“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock
of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers,
in which you tend the Church of God
that he acquired with his own Blood.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them.
So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day,
I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears.
And now I commend you to God
and to that gracious word of his that can build you up
and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
You know well that these very hands
have served my needs and my companions.
In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort
we must help the weak,
and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

When he had finished speaking
he knelt down and prayed with them all.
They were all weeping loudly
as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him,
for they were deeply distressed that he had said
that they would never see his face again.
Then they escorted him to the ship.

Like Jesus, Saint Paul incarnated their world and changed it but then he left. Of course we have the ongoing presence of Christ (“Behold, I am with you always”) in the Church, in the Eucharist in the poor and in the sacraments. There were three time periods of history if you will: Pre-Incarnation, Incarnation and Post-Incarnation- Jesus as the invisible, eternal Logos became Jesus the man who lived in Nazareth for just over thirty years and he became the everliving, everpresent resurrected, ecclessial and eucharistic Jesus as we know him today. 

Similarly, but less perfectly, when St. Paul wrote the Ephesians letters from a prison in Rome, he was disincarnated from them physically yet present to them supernaturally in spirit. His own words were written with his usually steady hand and were therefore recognizable as belonging to their father Paul (Paul would usually add a personal greeting in his own handwriting at the end of the letter to authenticate it). The papyrus scroll whose horizontal fibers created a familiar texture channeled his Holy Spirit breathed ideas and his ideas revealed Truth as conveyed through ancient ink (like us he embraced the technology of the day). 

Though he did not live with them full time, the Ephesian church members were in a familial relationship with him as is evident by the reading from today. He was clearly a spiritual father to them. As a father he knew their needs even before they did. He warned them of threats and reminded them of their identity and mission. Using the phrase, “these very hands have served” emphasized the importance of serving each other in an incarnational, up close and personal way. 

“When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all. They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him.” He used his body (kneeling) to demonstrate his love for God and they used theirs to demonstrate their love for him (embracing and kissing him). This was an example of ‘incarnational’ love. For Christians, ‘incarnational’ is probably a word that works better than ‘authentic’ as a way to mean the opposite of ‘artificial’. 

Jesus is the Word who became flesh. God became a man and dwelt among us, so that he could have a relationship with each person in a personal, human way for our own sake. He called people by name. He knew them and their families. He ate, spoke, laughed and cried with them. In the story of the Bible, God went from distant, invisible and veiled to visible, touchable and personally engaged. This the great movement of ‘Incarnation’ over the course of salvation history. In so far as technology has the ability to connect us with others and to facilitate interaction with many people, it also has the reverse effect of ‘discarnation’ (dis-embodiment).  Patrick S. J. Carmack, J.D. is the President of the Ignatius-Angelicum Liberal Studies Program, and the founder of the Angelicum Academy Homeschool Program and of the Great Books Academy Homeschool Program (2000 AD). He offers online, distance learning for high school students and college students for college credit in the area of Humanities. In a 2014 interview with Catholic World Report, regarding discarnation and technology Carmack said,

 “There are both advantages and disadvantages to this, but overall the changes are troubling, especially if one connects them to the increasing secularization of the West, where technological change is most rapid. In a word, there is a dehumanizing element to technology that disembodies us to some degree—a discarnation of a sort. That, of course, runs counter to the Catholic love of all reality, including the body and the incarnational aspect of the faith.”  http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/3311/the_present_future_and_quality_of_catholic_online_education.aspx)

This statement really hits home for me. I received a graduate degree from a distance learning program. The flexibility and the excellent curriculum are what I valued in distance learning. However, my experience of discarnation was real. I yearned for a real human teacher to engage me in a discussion. That discussion was limited to writing papers and taking tests with a proctor and then submitting them through the mail.  It wasn’t until the end of the program when I was required to attend a six week session on campus that I truly received an authentic Catholic experience of education. Not only did I have a relationship with my teacher, I also became friends with classmates and truly experienced Christ through them in a way that distance learning could not accomplish. 

Considering that the ‘end’ of Catholic education is ‘an encounter with Christ’, I can say from experience that it can only happen with personal engagement with those who bear His message. That forty day on-campus requirement changed my life and made me passionate about incarnational, sacramental and personal interaction in education. Though I use it effectively as a tool, technology can sometimes get in the way of that. Worse, it could be thought of as a replacement for that.

Incarnational Intelligence

So what would be the opposite of ‘artificial intelligence’? The answer is ‘incarnational intelligence’. The very word ‘artificial’ implies man-made. Artifacts are made by human hands. The word ‘Incarnation” means the enfleshment of an uncreated God. Incarnational intelligence refers to the uncreated, eternal word of God who became flesh and entered into a relationship with creation and most consequentially with human beings who were identified, named, and known by him. 

Jesus doesn't just bring spirit and matter together, he unites divinity and humanity, eternity and time, history and mystery. Jesus, the Word of God, spoke life-giving and transformative words. At first those words were only heard through ears, later they were both heard and read, spoken and written. Though the written word (holy scripture) represents a degree of separation, of disincarnation it is alive and full of his presence because it is divine. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). This power is released when the word is proclaimed aloud in the liturgy. 

Liturgy must be in person and incarnational. We go to Mass to hear the audible Word of God (Jesus) and eat the edible Word of God (Eucharist/Jesus). You may express your own personal openness to faith by watching Mass on a screen such as a phone or tv but it’s not Mass. Spiritual communion may be the next best thing to actually receiving the Eucharist but they are NOT the same. 

In a similar way a man who types a prompt into AI to ‘write’ his wife a heartfelt, romantic letter is not incarnating his love for her in words. Even though it may sound much better and be grammatically correct, that letter is worthless and counterproductive. AI Words form data which form information, which forms ideas, which form ideology form movements form historical events form wisdom forms tradition. identified, named, and known Authentic human expression is not just lines, symbols and colors coming together it is an offering of the self and a glimpse of the soul of a person.  “We all need to learn how to engage with the digital world in a human way, as an integral part of our education in the faith and in a life lived according to the Gospel. Indeed, we must consider the digital world as a new continent to be evangelized, one that requires generous missionaries who are mature in the faith” (paragraph 238).

Imago Dei vs Imago Homo

Going back to Genesis chapter 2 we see God breathing life into Adam after taking the time to form him with his own hands from the clay of the ground. Humans are simultaneously magnificent (breath of God- Imago Dei) and at the same time humble (from the ground). Our humility is exascerbated by the Fall in the next chapter of Genesis. 

AI is an artifact ( ‘Artificial’- man made) as such it lacks the breath of God (ruah, Holy Spirit). Unlike a bible which is matter that contains and reveals God’s word, AI lacks the creative cooperation between Man and God (divine inspiration). Even the Bible is only a partial revelation as Tradition and the interpretation of both Scripture and Tradition rely on the grace of an infallible interpreter and teacher. Whatever AI is spitting out lacks these thresholds of pure doctrine. It can mimic orthodoxy but it cannot authentically guarantee that the Holy Spirit is at work. It is also, like its human creators, flawed by sin. God is primarily concerned with saving us humans from sin through growth in virtue. As Pope Leo said, “For an algorithm, an error is a flaw to be corrected; for a person, however, an error can be a catalyst for profound change” (paragraph 128).

Because it is Imago Homo (made in the image of sinful men) “We must learn, then, how to exercise restraint in the use of AI and to protect our young people from the promise of the perfect machine, from that subtle temptation which renders human thought seemingly superfluous precisely when it is most needed” (paragraph 140).