What kind of an impact will AI have, long-term? Especially if you compare it to the massive consequences, all the social dislocation, caused unintentionally by the printing press in the 16th century.

It will be bigger. A lot bigger. Some very serious names in AI development have argued that we need to shut AI research down right now—not slow it down, but shut it down—claiming that the moment we achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) it will destroy every human being on the planet. If some Luddite from Iowa said something that radical, you wouldn’t pay any attention. But when a list of industry heavies say it, it’s extremely sobering. Potentially, AI is very dangerous. It’s going to take a lot of jobs from people. AGI will be autonomous and able to function almost identically to a human being. Right now, the “narrow” AI we have can do a wide variety of single things very well, like playing chess or the game Go, or Jeopardy. Artificial General Intelligence will interact with its environment in an autonomous way to achieve results. This is similar to what actual human beings do, but without a genuinely human character and consciousness.

What will AI do to the Catholic Church as a religious community? It seems it could have a very disruptive effect on the whole idea of human identity and destiny, the idea of the supernatural, and the reality of invisible truths.
Rev. Philip Larrey:

I don’t think we can know that yet. One excellent Catholic use of AI is “ Magisterium AI, ” founded by Matthew Sanders. He lives in Quebec, and he's also the CEO of Humanity 2.0, a very sound Catholic foundation. Magisterium AI helps users understand Catholic doctrine. He trained the AI on official Catholic teaching and documents, so it doesn’t present false information. And he’s feeding it 200 documents a week. Therefore, I’m optimistic. I think we’ll learn to use these AI tools to achieve good goals. And if our goal is to be a committed faith community, these tools will help us do that.

Elon Musk’s near-term view of a world shaped by advanced AI centers on rapid intelligence surpassing, massive abundance via AI + robotics, optional work, diminishing relevance of money, and loss of human control—while acknowledging non-zero existential risks.

Decrypt; Business Insider)

Musk has described this as the most likely outcome, assuming no major derailments such as global thermonuclear war.

Musk continues to flag risks (previously citing roughly 10–20% odds of catastrophic outcomes involving advanced AI/robots) but argues the technology’s momentum is unstoppable. He has said that even if a “stop button” existed, it probably should not be pressed because the upside of abundance is so large. (Business Insider; Decrypt)

His preferred approach to safety emphasizes building AI that is maximally truth-seeking and curious, with good values that care about humanity prospering. He has also suggested leading AI labs should review one another’s frontier models before release.

Musk presents a dual picture: transformative material abundance and optional labor that could redefine purpose and economics, alongside the realistic prospect that superintelligent systems will outstrip human control. He frames the near future (next 5–10 years) as a period of explosive progress that is both exciting and irreversible, with the best path being to steer AI toward curiosity, truth-seeking, and pro-human outcomes rather than attempting to halt development. These views appear consistently across recent interviews (notably with *The Economist* in July 2026) and his public statements.