On The New Things | AI & Humanity with Michael Matheson Miller
From Acton Line by Acton Institute
May 23, 2026 · 53 min · Episode 523
About this episode
The episode explores the implications of artificial intelligence through the lens of Catholic social teaching with Michael Matheson Miller.
Pope Leo XIV has signaled that artificial intelligence will be a defining concern of his pontificate, with an encyclical expected to address it directly. In this three-part series, the Acton Institute's Dan Hugger sits down with scholars across economics, history, and anthropology to ask what Catholic social teaching has to say about the AI revolution, as well as what an encyclical on AI will need to grapple with. Michael Matheson Miller, head of Acton's Center for Social Flourishing, presses the deepest question of the series. Is artificial intelligence actually intelligence? And what does the existence of these machines reveal about us? This is a wide-ranging conversation on consciousness, embodiment, the alignment problem we've already been living through for a decade, the philosophical assumptions baked into Silicon Valley code, and why no technology can substitute for the gospel. Subscribe to our podcasts Watch this podcast here If you’d like to support this podcast, you can help by leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions or suggestions for a future episode, you can email us at podcast@acton.org.
People in this episode
Host: Dan Hugger
Guest: Michael Matheson Miller
Topics covered
- artificial intelligence
- Catholic social teaching
- consciousness
- technology and spirituality
- philosophy
- AI revolution
Keywords
- artificial intelligence
- Catholic social teaching
- Pope Leo XIV
- consciousness
- technology
- AI revolution
- philosophy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Acton Institute
Books & works: encyclical
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