This week, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, a Pope has dedicated his first encyclical entirely to artificial intelligence.
On 25 May 2026, Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), a major Church document addressing the rise of artificial intelligence. The date was chosen deliberately, marking the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the document in which the Church last spoke into a period of great technological upheaval. Pope Leo XIV has made AI a priority since his election, warning of its challenges to human dignity, justice and work.
Left Behind: The AI Gap Affecting Girls
Alongside the Pope’s words this week, a body of research has been quietly accumulating that should give every school community pause, and every girls’ school a particular sense of urgency.
Study after study confirms that women and girls are being left behind in the AI revolution. A major synthesis of 18 international studies, covering more than 140,000 people, found that women are approximately 22% less likely than men to use AI tools, and that this gap persists even when controlling for age, education and occupation. A landmark study of 18,000 workers found that women were 20% less likely to use AI in the same roles as their male colleagues, completing the same tasks.
What the research also shows, importantly, is why this gap exists. It is not capability. Women and girls approach AI more cautiously, more ethically and with sharper concern for what these tools mean for privacy, truth and human connection.
In other words, they are asking all the right questions. The task now is making sure they are empowered to act on them.
Brigidine’s response: The AIDA Project
AIDA, the AI & Digital Agency Project, launches at Brigidine this term. Named for Ada Lovelace, the nineteenth-century mathematician and visionary widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer, The AIDA Project is built on a simple conviction; the girls at Brigidine College are exactly the kind of thinkers who should be shaping the future of technology, not simply consuming it.
We will share much more about the project in the coming weeks. But we begin, as we believe we should, with the students themselves.
The AIDA Student Consultancy Board – Applications Now Open
The AIDA Project will be co-designed with students from day one. This week, we opened expressions of interest for the inaugural Student Consultancy Board, the first of what will become an expanding opportunity as the project grows.
This year, we are inviting a small group of students from Years 8 to 11 to sit at the heart of the project. Board members will help shape Brigidine’s AI policy, lead professional learning for staff, experiment with AI tools across the curriculum, and represent the school at Open Days and community events. As the project develops, we look forward to opening this opportunity to more students across the College.
Applications close 4 June (Week 7). Interviews will be held in Week 8.
If your daughter is ready to help shape the future of AI at Brigidine, we would love to hear from her.
Mrs Natasha Mercer
Director of Teaching and Learning
