You get a call from an unknown number. It’s your son. He says his name; then, happy to hear from him, you begin to speak. But suddenly, he hangs up. So, you call his regular number. He says he never called you. It wasn’t your son—it was an AI. This story is true and factual. It happened last week to my mother. The machine had used my voice. Needless to say, the incident frightened my mother. How can she discern the difference between me and AI?

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No machine can replace the body

Our Holy Father, Pope Leo, has an answer given at the recent 60th World Day of Social Communications called “Preserving Human Voices and Faces,” rooted in the theology of the body: our faces and voices—our bodies—reveal who we are. When my mother hears my voice, she hears me. When she sees my face, she sees me. Relationships are built on bonds of mutual trust, with a sure knowledge of the other revealed by the body. This crucial element of relationality—trust—condemns lying, forgery, and impersonation. But the more we move to a disembodied environment, the more technology begins to mediate our relationships. The same technology that connects us across the world can mechanize and abuse trust. Despite our best efforts, our digital personifications are not our bodies and so fail to reveal who we are.

Our bodies deserve respect. Why should we be worried of AI “deepfakes” (highly realistic looking but fraudulent videos) mimicking our voices and names? Because they violate the truth of our bodies. This is what Pope Leo means when he writes, “Faces and voices are sacred… Safeguarding faces and voices ultimately means safeguarding ourselves.” In other words, as we say at TOBET, the body matters!

We have a responsibility to guard and respect the humanity of faces and voices. So, when you receive a call from an unknown number that mimics a voice you know: hang up! Our bodies allow us to build trusting relationships—but AI does not have a body.

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Pope Leo XIV