MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS. Diritto, tecnologie e sfide educative: per un altro realismo

Taking Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas as its starting point, this contribution reflects on the relationship between law, technological development and education in the age of artificial intelligence. It connects the encyclical’s social and political concerns with questions of power concentration, democratic control, war, environmental responsibility and the effective protection of human rights. Particular attention is devoted to the role of law in making technological power visible and accountable, and to the non-neutral character of digital technologies, whose design and deployment are shaped by economic, institutional and social choices. The discussion then turns to communication and education as crucial fields in which these transformations are experienced and contested. From this perspective, digital education is understood not merely as technical training, but as a form of citizenship education aimed at strengthening critical judgement, awareness of rights and participation. The contribution finally explores the potential of educational alliances and digital educational pacts as shared institutional responses to contemporary technological challenges.