Issue 16 & 17: Humanising AI towards The Common Good

Is there an ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor? What role is AI playing in this process: do we have to anticipate a massive wipe-out of a broad range of jobs? The present issue of the Macau Ricci Institute Journal intends to face the challenge of AI from an ethical point of view. With a reflection on the Encyclical letter “Magnifica Humanitas” of Pope Leo XIV. I share my ongoing dialogue with Zhou Shoujin which keeps going back on the question about the meaning of the Confucian terminology of “Common Good” (“Gong Shan”). The Encyclical letter places the “Common Good” firmly at the center of AI governance (Leo XIV, 2026, n. 59). In Confucianism, the Common Good is not merely the sum of individual preferences but an organic state of “Great Harmony” (Datong). The Confucian Common Good is defined through a tripartite structure namely the Commonality of Virtue: Goodness is inherently relational.
