The Discipline of Algorethics
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Algorethics, a combination of the words algorithm and ethics, refers to assessing the ethical implications of technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), a field that is becoming increasingly important with many implications for bioethics. A coalition of faith leaders and scholars in October 2025 signed a Joint Statement on AI Ethics in Rome. They were a diverse group but very much inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s call to address the implications of AI and insist on its ethical use. It also hearkened back to Pope Francis’ 2020 “Rome Call for AI Ethics.”
First of all, we should note that no machine can substitute for human judgment. The application of moral principles to experience is a work of the intellect. Because machines lack consciousness, they will never replace the moral reasoning done by human beings. Instead, they must follow human standards. The Church has produced an in-depth analysis of the ethical use of AI. Accuracy, transparency, security, human dignity, and the common good are the main areas that needed to be addressed.
Accuracy is important because AI programs have a troubling tendency to “hallucinate” or provide false answers that present themselves as facts. Clearly, AI products that do research and answer questions must be evaluated by independent reviewers and corrected when they generate dangerous information. AI, after all, is “trained” and “learns” from vast quantities of data, but like any other form of education, it can be oriented in good or perverse ways.
Transparency has historically been a major problem with AI. The public certainly has a right to know when AI products are being peddled. The “black box” or hidden way in which most AI programs function is problematic as it reduces its answers to oracles whose sources cannot be easily checked and assessed.
Privacy concerns are also very real when it comes to AI poking about in our personal information. So much of people’s lives now have a “digital footprint” that very sensitive information can be leaked or misused by extremely powerful computers. I witnessed the frustration of my mother-in-law after she moved and had tremendous difficulties in getting computer-controlled information corrected.
Proper control on how AI is used by public security organizations is also essential. There is evidence that facial recognition and other surveillance technologies are used by certain governments to target individuals, who are not criminals, for arrest or detention. There is also overwhelming consensus that AI weapons must never be allowed to autonomously decide to kill humans. The taking of a human life is a tragic decision that carries moral agency and responsibility. It cannot be farmed out to lifeless machines without transgressing ethics and opening a pandora’s box of evils. This part of the Joint Statement on AI Ethics will require vigorous follow-up as the temptation to use AI in warfare is tremendous.
There are major concerns on how AI can and does undermine human dignity. “In addition to guarding against AI eroding human critical thinking; excessively commodifying human decision-making; and exacerbating human inequality, animosity, and trauma, humans must guard against the technology’s potential to disrupt or displace human interaction, relationships, and empathy.” That is a long list of potential offenses, highlighting the stakes of getting algorethics right. There is a danger of “idol worship” of AI, where people treat it as a kind of god. Some people even have false and exalted notions of our ability to create a nonhuman but self-aware life-form through AI. This is not possible. Machines process data. They are incapable of conscious thought.
All of this leads to another ethical principle that should be applied to AI. It must serve the common good. It is ethically wrong for the benefits of AI to be hoarded by a select few instead of broadly distributed. Similarly, the negative impacts of AI, such as potentially replacing vast numbers of human workers, should be mitigated. Every new technology has made some jobs obsolete or redundant but also created new opportunities. The pain of displacement ought not to be imposed without helping employees and workers to find other jobs and to train for those that become available. It would also not be ethically acceptable for human beings to be left idle while computers and robots did all the work. Enforced joblessness is an offense against human dignity.
The development of AI has not benefited from robust ethical safeguards. Its rise was largely driven by the profit-motive and also by authoritarian regimes seeking more effective means of controlling their populations. This lack of ethics is a recipe for disaster when it guides such a powerful technological tool. Thankfully, the Church and many others with ethical sensibilities and a strong understanding of human rights have increasingly stepped in to make their voices heard. This needs to happen more.
Kudos to Ryan Anderson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) and the other scholars and leaders who crafted the Joint Statement on AI Ethics. This is the kind of reflection we currently need. Furthermore, the statement includes a lengthy list of measures that are suggested as a way to help AI conform to good algorethics. One of those is a top priority of Pope Leo, negotiating an international convention banning completely autonomous war. Many others point to the need for ethical regulations that lower the risk of treating AI as a panacea rather than as one more tool to serve humanity. Assisting rather than replacing human beings is an interesting moral framework for thinking about the good uses of AI just as it is in the area of evaluating medical interventions and technologies addressing human infertility.
Joseph Meaney, PhD, KM
November 11, 2025
Joseph Meaney received his PhD in bioethics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. His doctoral program was founded by the late Elio Cardinal Sgreccia and linked to the medical school and Gemelli teaching hospital. His dissertation topic was Conscience and Health Care: A Bioethical Analysis. Dr. Meaney earned his master’s in Latin American studies, focusing on health care in Guatemala, from the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from the University of Dallas with a BA in history and a concentration in international studies. The Benedict XVI Catholic University in Trujillo, Peru, awarded Dr. Meaney an honorary visiting professorship. The University of Dallas bestowed on him an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters in 2022.