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Pope Leo Issues Warning About the Use of AI
The encyclical urges tighter oversight of private AI firms and stronger worker safeguards as 57% of U.S. voters say AI risks outweigh benefits, NBC News found.
- On Monday, Pope Leo published a roughly 42,300-word encyclical calling for regulation of private AI companies, worker protections, and safeguards against fake AI-generated information. The pontiff wrote in Magnifica Humanitas that humanity's 'capacity for relationship and love' must never be abandoned.
- The Vatican's alarm on AI reflects mounting public skepticism across the U.S., where a March NBC News survey found 57% of voters believe risks outweigh benefits compared to 34% who disagreed. This public resistance prompted the Church to assert its role in global AI dialogue.
- Leo specifically criticized the growing ease of deploying autonomous weapons and warned that technology corporations race to replace humans in work and relationships. Will Jones, head of faith outreach at the Future of Life Institute, called Magnifica Humanitas 'a rallying cry for the world to reassert the primacy of humanity over our tools.'
- Major tech executives including Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg remained silent Tuesday, though Vice President JD Vance, a practicing Catholic, told NBC News the message sounded 'very profound.' Leading AI researcher Yoshua Bengio posted support on X, and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey responded 'yes' to Leo's warning about concentrated power.
- Critics from Silicon Valley disputed Leo's premises: venture capitalist Eddy Lazzarin found the encyclical 'defensive' and theologically shallow, former White House AI czar David Sacks warned aggressive regulation could enable surveillance, and University of Washington researcher Pedro Domingos rejected Leo's claim that AI concentrates power, arguing it will 'spread more widely than ever, just like the Internet.
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Anthropic Cofounder Travels to Vatican, Tells Pope They're Finding "Unsettling" Things Inside AI Models
Ever since being anointed as the leader of the Catholic Church last year, Pope Leo has been an outspoken critic of AI. Most recently, in his first encyclical, he called for the tech to be “disarmed,” accusing it of facilitating the emergence of “new digital slaveries” and criticizing its enormous carbon footprint. The rebuke, however, was made while sitting next to a highly unusual bedfellow: Anthropic billionaire and self-described atheist Chri…
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources19
Leaning Left4Leaning Right4Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution37% Left, 36% Right
Bias Distribution
- 37% of the sources lean Left, 36% of the sources lean Right
37% Left
L 37%
C 27%
R 36%
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