Pope Leo XIV warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence and lobbied for more safeguards with the technology in the pontiff’s first encyclical.
In “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” published Monday, the first American-born pope wrote that AI technology must be used for “the common good” as opposed to profit, while still “remaining human.”
“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together,” the pope wrote.
Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical comes as the Trump administration has taken steps to deregulate AI, which the pope warned could have an adverse effect societally.
“Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,” he wrote.
“It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required. A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.”
Pope Leo XIV published his encyclical shortly after hosting representatives from Anthropic — an AI company that has been at odds with the Trump administration — at the Vatican.
“We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments — to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction,” Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah said Monday at the Vatican. “We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”
