Simon J. L. Billinge

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Author Bio

Simon J. L. Billinge is Distinguished Professor of Materials and Director of the California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara, and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project.

July 7, 2026

Retaining your humanity in the time of AI: you get to choose

Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), calls on political leaders to develop policies that address the most dramatic effects of AI on human life.  But at its heart, it…