In the original Terminator movie (1984) – a somewhat Orwellian year to make such a movie – the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin has been sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate Sarah Connor, whose not-yet-conceived son will one day save humankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence, in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese is a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. He has to explain the machine’s absolute ruthlessness to Sarah:

“Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead!”

In his just-released papal encyclical, Pope Leo writes: 

“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean, nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom.” (#99)

The Pope warns that artificial intelligence needs to be “disarmed”. He notes: “The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention.”  From a moral perspective it raises the question whether an AI-lead war at the strategic or tactical level can ever be considered a “just war” from the perspective of Catholic moral theology.

It has been 42 years since I first saw “The Terminator.”  Skynet seems a lot less fictional these days.