Read Pope Leo's AI Encyclical
First published in The Study of Light, on Substack, on May 26, 2026
(Photo above depicts a real book with real words, showing kids playing in real mud. What a concept!)
I just had a conversation with two teacher friends. Nothing unusual about that, except that in my world (the school where I taught is where my wife still teaches, and it’s a school that eschews computers, the internet) we’re already cautious about our AI use. No, the friends I spoke with are public school teachers in Colorado, and they described the dissolution of the American mind in real time. Like, five years ago, eight students in a class of 25 able to think and write and create. This year, there is one. Eighth graders unable to write a haiku poem. Not “write a haiku well,” or “write something beautiful,” but write three lines of non-rhyming thoughts in a sequence of 5-7-5 syllables. Many of them unwilling to try. “It’s too hard.” “I can’t do it.” But the students are able to use a phone or a Chromebook to ask AI to write a paper for them, or a break-up note.
This week we have the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust defending the late photographer’s work against AI and opportunists who are exploiting it for profit.
I am citing these issues here, because, frankly, there’s nothing more important happening in my photography world than this. We have a thing that is real, that is being made unreal. What an exploiter can do to an Ansel Adams image, someone else is doing to your kid’s brain. Or your brain.
1 I encourage you to look up the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and read their statement. I found it on Instagram, but am unable to find a functioning link to it. It is not, per se, an objection to AI or to technology, but it concerns the theft of intellectual property, which is the basis for the large language models.
2 Also, consider the new Pope Leo’s first encyclical.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas-ai.html
3 Third, just do something today. Without your computer or phone. Ask a question that the internet cannot answer. I am happy to be in the garden, starting now.
When I took this photo of my daughter playing on a playground in a shopping area, in front of a lingerie store, I could hear in my mind Cat Stevens' song: "Where Do The Children Play?" Isn't a human mind a marvel to behold?! We make associations. We connect thoughts and ideas. And AI is copying US! Because we got it going on! We think. We create.
What did you miss when you were looking at your phone?
What is happening in this photo? Only the human mind can ask.