While calling Artificial intelligence a great novelty — “one of the rerum novarum, or ‘new things,’ of our time” — Pope Leo XIV urged students to “not let technology use you.”

He was speaking to participants of the Jubilee of the World of Education in the Paul  VI Audience Hall in the Vatican on Oct. 30.

The pontiff told the young people it is not enough to be ‘intelligent’ in virtual reality.

“We must also treat one another humanely, nurturing emotional, spiritual, social and ecological intelligence.  Therefore, I say to you: Learn to humanize the digital, building it as a space of fraternity and creativity — not a cage where you lock yourselves in, not an addiction or an escape.  Instead of being tourists on the web, be prophets in the digital world,” Leo said.

The pope then spoke of the work from one of those he canonized on Sept. 7, Saint Carlo Acutis.

Acutis, who died in 2006, is known for his work on websites and it considered the “patron saint of the Internet.”

“He was a young man who did not become a slave to the internet, but rather used it skillfully for good,” Leo said.

“Saint Carlo combined his beautiful faith with his passion for computers, creating a website on Eucharistic miracles and thus making the internet a tool for evangelization.  His initiative teaches us that the digital world is educational when it does not close us in on ourselves but opens us to others — when it does not place us at the center but orients us toward God and others,” he added.

He urged the students to live life to the fullest, and not to settle.

Do not settle for appearances or fads; a life stifled by fleeting pleasures will never satisfy us,” Leo said.

The pope ended his remarks by speaking of the new Global Compact on Education, which has the theme “Education for Peace.”

“You can see how much our future is threatened by war and hatred, which divide people.  Can this future be changed?  Certainly!  How?  With an education for peace that is disarmed and disarming,” he said.

“It is not enough, in fact, to silence weapons: We must disarm hearts, renouncing all violence and vulgarity.  In this way, a disarming and disarmed education creates equality and growth for all, recognizing the equal dignity of every young person, without ever dividing young people between the privileged few who have access to expensive schools and the many who do not have access to education,” Leo told the students.

“With great confidence in you, I invite you to be peacemakers first and foremost where you live — in your families, at school, in sports, and among your friends — reaching out to those who come from other cultures,” he said.