A Call For All of Us.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
A brilliant young designer once told me that the most effective way to approach design is to "focus on the margins."
In one respect, she was literally talking about the outer edges of a canvas and her desire to use that space effectively. More importantly, she was talking about the people who sit on the outer edges of accessibility: those who may be color- or sight-limited, and those who process information in non-traditional ways. She was talking about the people who are too often designed around rather than designed for.
"When we design for the margins," she reminded me, "we ensure the greatest number of people can access and benefit from the information."
I've been thinking about those words, offered so many years ago by a then-student designer, as I reflect on Pope Leo XIV's first papal encyclical, released Monday. In his own way, the pope was saying something remarkably similar. He called on all of us to focus on and care for the margins, where, he suggests, our greatest humanity lies.
The 82-page document, titled "Magnifica Humanitas," is subtitled On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. And while it's not 82 pages entirely about AI, it is clear from the start that Leo XIV, the long-ago mathematics major from Villanova, has technology on his mind.
"Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed," he said, acknowledging the word was strong but chosen anyway because, as he said, "this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity."
In an age of efficiency, Leo used this first encyclical to call us back to moral responsibility and human-first leadership. Without it, he warns, we cannot expect AI to become a great tool that liberates workers. We can expect only to become, in his framing, servants to the machines. He spoke with concern about a reality many workers already feel: that AI too often bends human beings to the pace and logic of machines, rather than the other way around.
Technology, in his view, should be designed to serve those who work, not to demand that workers bend to serve it.
Work IS getting faster, and requiring that we bend to keep up. But are WE getting smarter by using it, or is the technology? And are we growing more or less human, in the face of its rapid acceleration?
As I listened to the reactions of my colleagues across democracy, philanthropy, technology, and education to Pope Leo's encyclical this week, and to those big questions posed above, I was struck by the similarities in their responses. Across every sector, people kept coming back to the same three convictions:
1. Technology is only progress when it lifts up and supports the human; when it heals, and when it reaches the people who would otherwise be forgotten.
2. The real strength of AI is in who it protects. We must always build with the most vulnerable in the room.
3. And yes, technology can scale knowledge. It can also scale confusion, doubt, hatred, and a false sense of being. If we don't prioritize truth, what of humanity will be left?
This is a design-for-the-margins moment, applied to the most consequential technology of our time.
Last weekend, in my commencement address at Loyola University Maryland, I invited graduates to stay on the edge of knowledge and to use purpose as their guide. "Whether it's AI or some other innovation yet to be known," I asked them to "work to understand the tools through the Loyola values." And, I implored them to "know what the tools are capable of and to use them wisely."
It's not if or when we'll use AI. That question has come and gone. It's how we choose to use it, and on whose terms. Or, in Pope Leo's framing, it's not what machines can do. It's what kind of humans we are becoming.
This moment is a call to action for all of us: leaders, communicators, educators, designers, and technologists alike. Leo's words are a reminder for us all, regardless of religious beliefs or background, that every choice we make about how we build, deploy, and talk about AI is a values statement. How we care for the margins — the people most likely to be left out, left behind, or actively harmed — is the truest test of whether we are using these tools wisely.
If you're curious what Leo XIV specifically called for in his encyclical, The New York Times’ Motoko Rich, Elisabetta Povoledo, and Elizabeth Dias broke it down quite well:
Government regulation of private companies that are driving the development of A.I.
Protection and retraining for workers whose jobs are threatened
Education to help students think critically about the technology
Action to protect children from violent, hypersexualized or fake information online that is often generated by A.I.
Safeguards to ensure that humans, not artificial intelligence, remain responsible for all decisions regarding the use of weapons.
As that dear designer first taught me, how we treat the margins tells us everything we need to know about the center. The people most likely to be overlooked are those whose needs, if met, improve the experience for everyone.
Pope Leo XIV has now made the same argument from the Vatican. And all of us, wherever we lead, and with whatever tools we're handed, are being asked to decide what kind of humans we will become.
That choice belongs to us. Not our machines.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
