BANGKOK (LiCAS News): Divine Word [SVD] Father Anthony Le Duc warned Church leaders in Thailand, during a February 3 keynote address, that artificial intelligence is reshaping human conscience, urging a moral response as digital systems increasingly influence human choice.
Father Le Duc, executive director of the Asian Research Centre for Religion and Social Communication, was speaking at a meeting of the Theological Advisory Committee to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand held in Samphran, west of Bangkok.
He noted that the digital revolution is no longer merely a matter of tools but represents a deeper transformation of the human person and moral life.
He urged the Church to recognise that Artificial Intelligence has become a “moral environment” that silently reshapes the human conscience.
Myth of neutrality
Drawing from the recent message of Pope Leo XIV for World Media Day 2026, Father Le Duc challenged the common perception of technology as a neutral instrument.
“Technology is never neutral,” he asserted. “It creates the rhythm of life and determines what we see and what we don’t see.” He added that in the context of AI, the stakes are higher. These systems do not merely support decisions; they filter, prioritise, and predict them.
He noted that the digital revolution is no longer merely a matter of tools but represents a deeper transformation of the human person and moral life
This process of “algorithmic mediation,” he explained, creates a framework that governs human choice, often before individuals are even aware that a choice is being made.
Integral human development as a compass
To navigate this shift, Father Le Duc proposed Integral Human Development as an essential moral anchor. Grounded in the Imago Dei, the belief that human beings are created in the image of God, this framework holds that progress cannot be measured by economic or technical efficiency alone.
“Human dignity is rooted in the image of God, not in utilitarianism or competitiveness,” he said. “Man is the source, the centre, and the purpose of all social life.”
He warned that digital culture tends to separate identity from physicality, even as moral conduct remains an embodied experience. Conscience, he said, grows within real-life relationships and community, not in the isolated and fragmented space of a digital screen.
Technology is never neutral. It creates the rhythm of life and determines what we see and what we don’t see
Father Le Duc
The erosion of interiority
The lecture also highlighted a growing crisis of what he described as “managed attention,” noting that digital systems are designed for speed and immediate gratification, while moral reflection requires silence and presence.
“Disordered desire blurs judgment,” Father Le Duc explained, adding that when algorithms predict and prompt emotional responses the inner life is undermined. As a result, individuals risk becoming “followers of the system” rather than free and responsible persons capable of repentance and moral growth.
A call to “algor-ethics” and virtue
The priest also called for a revival of virtue ethics to counter what he described as the logic of the machine, redefining classical virtues for the digital age.
He described prudence as the courage to pause and reflect in a system that demands instant response, justice as the ability to see the individual behind data points and calculations, and temperance as the restoration of inner freedom to choose rather than simply react to digital stimuli.
Humility, he added, requires accepting the limits of human knowledge even when technological systems appear to “know better.”
Christian communities need to create spaces and rhythms of life where humans can make decisions without being rushed, predicted, or replaced
Father Le Duc
The Church as a moral ecology
The responsibility for moral formation, Father Le Duc said, cannot rest solely on individuals. He described it as a pastoral priority for the Church to shape a “moral ecology,” an environment conducive to reflection rather than calculation.
“Christian communities need to create spaces and rhythms of life where humans can make decisions without being rushed, predicted, or replaced,” he said.
This, he added, involves treating digital literacy as moral literacy, teaching the faithful not only how to use artificial intelligence but also when to refuse its mediation.
The address concluded with a call for the Church to act as a prophetic witness in the public square, affirming that “not everything that is efficient is good.”
He said the central question of the digital age is not how “smart” technology will become, but whether humanity will remain a people of conscience, free, responsible, and capable of hearing the voice of God amid digital noise.
